title: Scott Raynor

text: Raynor attended Rancho Bernardo High School (RBHS). RBHS often arranged Battle of the Bands competitions, and Raynor participated: his band, The Necropheliacs, played a cover of Metallica's "Creeping Death". While at the competition, new transfer student Tom DeLonge, who had been kicked out of Poway High School for attending a basketball game while drunk, performed an original song titled "Who's Gonna Shave Your Back Tonight?" to a packed auditorium. Raynor was introduced to DeLonge at a party by Paul Scott, founding member of The Necropheliacs, shortly before he moved out of state. The two found they had plenty in common, and DeLonge was searching for a more permanent band to create music with. The two began writing songs at Raynor's parents' home – "a strange mix of metal and Descendents-style punk" – and tried out a variety of bass players, according to Raynor.


title: Scott Raynor

text: DeLonge later met Mark Hoppus in August 1992 through friend Kerry Key and his girlfriend, Anne Hoppus. "I thought they were hilarious when I met them. I mean, I didn't have a driver's license yet, so I gained a lot of agency through hanging with them and their group of friends," said Raynor. The trio began to practice in Raynor's room (amid complaints from neighbors), which was soundproofed with empty egg cartons.


title: Scott Raynor

text: The trio spent time together constantly, attending punk shows and movies and playing practical jokes. The trio first operated under a variety of names, including Duck Tape and Figure 8, until DeLonge rechristened the band "Blink". Hoppus' girlfriend later led him to depart from the group for a time, but he returned when Raynor and DeLonge began recording a demo tape on a four track recorder with friend and collaborator Cam Jones. The band soon became part of a circuit that also included the likes of Ten Foot Pole and Unwritten Law, and they found their way onto the bill as the opening band for local acts at SOMA, a local all-ages venue which they longed to headline. "It's difficult to describe, in words, the nauseous mix of fear and excitement that would hit me when I first started seeing lines of people wanting to hear us play," said Raynor.


title: Scott Raynor

text: The three eventually were playing concerts at local venues such as SOMA, which alerted local independent record label Cargo Music. Hoppus was the only member to sign the contract, as DeLonge was at work at the time and Raynor was still a minor. The "Cheshire Cat" sessions were to be the last performance with the band for Raynor, whose family had moved to Reno, Nevada. Raynor stayed with his sister for the summer of 1993 in order to rehearse for the recording of their debut album. Raynor moved to Reno following the recording and was briefly replaced by school friend Mike Krull. The band saved money and began flying Raynor out to shows, but eventually Raynor would move back to San Diego to live with Hoppus and his family. His parents allowed him to drop out of full-time school to move back and play with the band, but he would continue to finish his diploma by bringing homework on tour. "I think Mark and his sister Anne and I stayed up watching old TV shows until morning that whole summer," he recalled.


title: Scott Raynor

text: "The summer I lived with Mark and his family was probably the greatest summer of my life so far," said Raynor in 2001. "I left home at 17, came to San Diego, we bought a van, finished our first video… I had all kinds of dreams in my head and they were all coming true."


title: Scott Raynor

text: By March 1996, the trio began to accumulate a genuine buzz among major labels, resulting in a bidding war between Interscope, MCA, and Epitaph. MCA's persistence and sincerity won the band over, as well as their promise of complete artistic freedom. The band began recording their sophomore effort "Dude Ranch" that winter. Raynor had broken both heels and was in a wheelchair due to a drunken stunt, but was well enough to record the drum tracks for the album while on crutches. The record hit stores the following summer and the band headed out on the Warped Tour, which Raynor described as "one of the most unequivocally positive experiences of my time with the band." When lead single "Dammit" began rotation at Los Angeles-based KROQ, other stations took notice and the single was added to rock radio playlists across the country. Desperate for a break due to extended touring, the overworked band began to argue and tensions formed, centering largely around Raynor.


title: Scott Raynor

text: Raynor had planned from the earliest days of the band to one day attend college, as he said in a partially tongue-in-cheek remark in a 1994 interview: "I don't want to be 30 and still in a punk-rock band. That seems kind of scary to me." Shortly after the band released "Dude Ranch", Raynor began to think outside of the situation, viewing the major label experience as nothing like he had hoped. He had only been half invested in the band since signing to MCA, as he felt it offered less creative freedom, especially in comparison to Epitaph, which had been pursuing the band and was Raynor's first choice. "I mean, I was intellectually invested, I recognized it as a smart move financially. But it's like that song says, 'I Left My Heart in San Francisco'; I left my heart in the office at Epitaph. After that compromise I found it difficult to make further ones, and I felt like I was asked to make a lot. Eventually, there was not enough of my heart in the band to justify my sticking around. I backed away, I was dead weight."


title: Scott Raynor

text: The tension came to a head in February 1998 as the band embarked on SnoCore, described as "a winter version of the Warped Tour." Sharing the stage with Primus, the band was enjoying more success than ever before, but the drama between the musicians had grown substantially. Relations reached a low point when the band engaged in a fight on a Nebraska date after SnoCore's conclusion. Shortly after the conclusion of SnoCore was a short mini-tour along the western coast, most notably Southern California, the band's favorite place to play. The tour ended with the band headlining a sold-out show at the Palladium in Hollywood, where the band had dreamed of performing for years.


title: Scott Raynor

text: Raynor suffered a "tragic loss" during the West Coast mini-tour and flew home, forcing the band to find a fill-in drummer: Travis Barker of the ska punk support band The Aquabats. Barker learned the drum tracks for the band's set in only 45 minutes prior to his first show. Raynor returned for the band's Hollywood Palladium performance, and the band became increasingly uneasy and arguments grew worse. To offset personal issues, Raynor began to drink heavily and it began to affect the band's performances. Following a largely successful Australian tour in the spring, Hoppus and DeLonge presented an ultimatum: quit drinking or go to an in-patient rehab. Raynor agreed to both and informed the band of his decision after taking the weekend to mull options. According to Raynor, he was fired through a phone call despite his agreement to rehab. Despite this, he felt no malice toward his former bandmates and conceded they were "right" to fire him. The band minimized the impact of the situation in future interviews and remained vague regarding his departure. The band later worked Raynor's departure into a song, "Man Overboard", which makes reference to his alcohol abuse.


title: Scott Raynor

text: Following his exit from Blink-182, Raynor kept himself busy with various musical projects, including a group called The Axidentals. Raynor played guitar for the group, which recorded an extended play and a full-length that was left unreleased when Vagrant Records showed interest in signing the band. By the time the deal went through, Raynor was having disputes with the group and quit; the band later released their debut album as 'Death on Wednesday' through Vagrant in 2000. He began contributing to a charity called StandUp for Kids, an outreach organization that helped street and homeless youth. He also taught music to teens in trouble with the law under the "Street of Dreams" program.


title: Scott Raynor

text: Raynor later went on to perform with the group Grimby from 2000 to 2001, which recorded an extended play at Doubletime Studios. Recorded live over the course of a day, Raynor has described it as dark comedy, "a Black Sabbath, Ramones, and "Weird Al" Yankovic milkshake." In January 2003, a rumor circulated on the Internet that Raynor had been shot dead; he addressed the hoax via a letter he e-mailed to the sites in question, that instead directed the attention to the StandUp for Kids organization. Raynor fulfilled a long-held ambition to work with Nirvana producer Jack Endino on an extended play recorded with The Spazms in 2004. "The language of the whole record really speaks for me. It's deskilled, nihilistic, and posits, by default not intention, a Franco-feminism", he said.


title: Scott Raynor

text: Photographs via Facebook in June 2018 showed Raynor was no longer the band’s drummer, but he rejoined in May 2019 and stayed with the band for the rest of that year.


title: Scott Raynor

text: Raynor appears in the music video for the song "Wing of Night", although he didn't take part in the writing process.


title: Molly Hatchet

text: Molly Hatchet is an American rock band formed in 1971 by guitarist Dave Hlubek in Jacksonville, Florida. They were a popular band during the late 1970s and early-to-mid 1980s among the southern rock and hard rock communities. The band released six studio albums on Epic Records between 1978 and 1984, including the platinum-selling hit records "Molly Hatchet" (1978), "Flirtin' with Disaster" (1979) and "Beatin' the Odds" (1980). They also had successful hits on the "Billboard" charts, including "Flirtin' with Disaster", "The Rambler", "Bloody Reunion" and "Satisfied Man". Molly Hatchet has released eight more studio albums since their split with Epic in 1985, although none of them have been as successful as their early albums, nor charted in the United States.


title: Molly Hatchet

text: Molly Hatchet has experienced numerous lineup changes throughout their -year career. While its current lineup includes none of the members who played on the band's first album, who are all deceased, keyboardist John Galvin has been a member of Molly Hatchet since 1984 (with the exception of a break between 1991 and 1994) and Bobby Ingram has been their guitarist since 1987, when he replaced founding member Dave Hlubek, who would rejoin the band 18 years later and stayed with the band until his death in 2017. Also included in the current lineup are drummer Shawn Beamer, bassist Tim Lindsey and vocalist Jimmy Elkins.


title: Molly Hatchet

text: Molly Hatchet was founded by guitarist Dave Hlubek in 1971. The band originated and was based in Jacksonville, Florida and shared influences and inspiration with what is perhaps the most well-known act in the Southern rock genre, Lynyrd Skynyrd.


title: Molly Hatchet

text: The producer on their first record, Tom Werman, known for working with straight rock music acts such as Cheap Trick and Ted Nugent, combined boogie, blues and hard rock.


title: Molly Hatchet

text: The band released their first album, "Molly Hatchet" in September 1978, supported by "Dreams I'll Never See" (a cover of the Allman Brothers Band 1969 track "Dreams") which got AOR airplay. The album was followed a year later by "Flirtin' with Disaster", with its title song another AOR hit, as was its first track, "Whiskey Man", from the album. Molly Hatchet proceeded to tour behind both records and expanded their fan base, appearing at theaters, arenas and stadiums with the likes of AC/DC, Aerosmith, The Babys, The Charlie Daniels Band, Cheap Trick, Def Leppard, Journey, Judas Priest, Eddie Money, The Outlaws, REO Speedwagon, Rush, Santana, Scorpions, Bob Seger, Thin Lizzy, .38 Special, Pat Travers, UFO, and The Who.


title: Molly Hatchet

text: Lead singer Danny Joe Brown left the band in May 1980 due to diabetes and other reasons, only to return two years later. After Brown left Molly Hatchet, he formed the Danny Joe Brown Band.


title: Molly Hatchet

text: Brown was replaced in 1980 in Molly Hatchet by vocalist Jimmy Farrar, a native of LaGrange, Georgia. The earlier albums seemed to some commentators to exhibit a distinct southern cultural influence; that sound changed with the addition of Farrar. Danny Joe Brown's stage persona, gruff voice, and cowboy horse-whistling was replaced by Jimmy Farrar's new vocal style, mixed with a new, harder-rocking sound. With the success of the next album, "Beatin' the Odds", released September 1980, the band ventured away from the Southern rock sound of their first albums. Nonetheless, Molly Hatchet toured successfully in support of "Beatin' the Odds", opening for bands like Blue Öyster Cult, AC/DC and The Outlaws, as well as headlining their own tour that was supported by the Michael Schenker Group and the Johnny Van Zant Band.


title: Molly Hatchet

text: By 1981, Molly Hatchet had evolved to a straight-ahead rock style and a slicker production, as exhibited on "Take No Prisoners" (November 1981). The band remained a successful act on the touring circuit.


title: Molly Hatchet

text: Longtime bass player Banner Thomas left in November 1981 and was replaced by Riff West. In the following year, drummer B. B. Borden (also known as B. B. Queen as a member of the funk rock band Mother's Finest) replaced Crump, who had moved to Los Angeles. Farrar then left the group to make way for Brown's return. He would later rejoin other members of Molly Hatchet in Southern Rock Allstars and Gator Country. Brown rejoined the band in May 1982 after the departure of Farrar.


title: Molly Hatchet

text: In March 1983, the line-up of Brown, Hlubek, Holland, Roland, West and Borden released the band's fifth album "No Guts...No Glory". While touring for the album during the summer of 1983, Hatchet was touring with fellow Jacksonville natives Blackfoot. However, just before a gig at Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Kansas, Brown, Holland and Roland decided to leave and return home, leaving only Hlubek, West and Borden to play the show. After a quick rehearsal backstage, Blackfoot's Rickey Medlocke took Brown's place as front man and their other guitarist, Charlie Hargrett, played behind Hlubek's lead. Danny and the other members of Molly Hatchet re-joined the tour the next day, but Holland decided to leave the band once again in 1984 and was replaced by former Danny Joe Brown Band keyboardist John Galvin.


title: Molly Hatchet

text: In November 1984 the album "The Deed Is Done" was released, which was more of a straightforward pop/rock offering, with Bruce Crump returning on drums.


title: Molly Hatchet

text: November 1985 saw the unveiling of the band's double live album "Double Trouble Live", after which the band was dropped by Epic. They retained Brown and their Southern Rock style.


title: Molly Hatchet

text: Guitarist/founder Hlubek, who later admitted to suffering from drug troubles, left Molly Hatchet in January 1987. He was replaced by Bobby Ingram, who had contributed backup vocals to "Double Trouble", had played as a guitarist in the Danny Joe Brown Band and had also played earlier with Brown in Rum Creek.


title: Molly Hatchet

text: Molly Hatchet's first studio album in five years, and only release on Capitol Records, "Lightning Strikes Twice" was released in 1989 and it was their first one not to appear on the charts. One of its singles, "There Goes the Neighborhood", did however enter the Top 30 on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. The band went on a year-long tour to support the album, playing smaller venues such as clubs and theaters, as opposed to the stadiums and arenas that had expanded their popularity. On July 8, 1990, Molly Hatchet, who had been dropped by Capitol after the commercial failure of "Lighting Strikes Twice", announced at a show in Toledo, Ohio that the concert would be their final one, that after that night the band would be disbanding.


title: Molly Hatchet

text: A greatest hits collection released by Epic, "Greatest Hits", featuring two newly recorded songs, was released in the fall of 1990, with sales reaching gold status.


title: Molly Hatchet

text: In late 1990, a revised band led by Brown and Ingram featured new players Rik Blanz (guitar), Rob Scavetto (keyboards), Eddie Rio (bass) and David Feagle (drums). But the Hatchet's lineup in the 1990s was a bit of a revolving door. Rio was replaced in 1991 by Rob Sweat and then Kevin Rian. Feagle was succeeded the same year by drummer Kenny Holton. Blanz left in mid-1991, replaced by Erik Lundgren touring member (guitar) Phil McCormack stood in for Brown briefly in early 1992 and by 1993 the lineup was: Brown, Ingram, Lundgren, Mac Crawford (drums) and a returning Banner Thomas (bass), with Mike Kach (keyboards), who was replaced in 1994 by Andy Orth. Bryan Bassett (ex-Wild Cherry) took over as second guitarist in 1994 and Buzzy Meekins (formerly of the Outlaws and Danny Joe Brown Band) was bassist after Banner left again in 1995.


title: Molly Hatchet

text: During the first half of the 1990s, Molly Hatchet played selected shows and tours but did not record again until 1995 when they began working on a new studio album with German producer Kalle Trapp.


title: Molly Hatchet

text: In April 1995, after continuing health problems, Brown had to once again leave the band and Jimmy Farrar was brought back for a few weeks to front the group and help "legitimize" the current version. But the crowd reaction to Farrar being back wasn't overly positive and Ingram and Brown together made the decision to bring back Brown's 1992 stand-in, Phil McCormack, as the permanent replacement. McCormack fronted the band for their next album "Devil's Canyon" (June 1996).


title: Molly Hatchet

text: During the rest of the 1990s, the band's line-up did not feature any of the members who had performed in Molly Hatchet prior to 1984. Bobby Ingram leased, then obtained in 2000, the trademark ownership to work with the name. At this point, the band consisted of vocalist Phil McCormack, guitarists Bobby Ingram and Bryan Bassett, returning keyboardist John Galvin, bassist Andy McKinney and drummer Mac Crawford. In 1998 this line-up recorded the album "Silent Reign of Heroes" (June 1998).


title: Molly Hatchet

text: In 1997 keyboardist Tim Donovan began filling in for Galvin on the road and Sean Shannon became the group's new drummer in 1998 after Crawford left. In 1999 the band traveled coast to coast that year with Charlie Daniels and the Volunteer Jam.


title: Molly Hatchet

text: Former Hatchet singer Danny Joe Brown, despite a long battle with diabetes and the effects of a stroke, was able to take the stage one last time at the Jammin' for DJB benefit concert organized by former Hatchet bassist Riff West on July 18, 1999, at Orlando, Florida's Club LaVela. With the help of his friends and former members Bruce Crump, Banner Thomas, Steve Holland and Dave Hlubek, he ended the show with "Flirtin' with Disaster".


title: Molly Hatchet

text: In June 2000 Bobby Ingram became the sole owner of the trade and service mark "Molly Hatchet", acquired from original member Duane Roland. Also in 2000, "Kingdom of XII" was recorded and released in Europe, and the band then toured Europe to promote the album. It was released in the United States in June 2001. After the recording of "Kingdom", guitarist Russ Maxwell came aboard after Bassett left the group to rejoin Foghat, then Shawn Beamer (from Southern Rock Rebellion) replaced Sean Shannon in the fall of 2001. Bassist Jerry Scott (formerly with Brian Howe's band) joined in early 2002 after McKinney departed.


title: Molly Hatchet

text: That same year, Ingram took a short break from touring after suffering a heart attack, and the band continued with only Maxwell on guitar.


title: Molly Hatchet

text: "Locked and Loaded" (a live recording from 2000) was released in March 2003 and "25th Anniversary: Best of Re-Recorded" followed in January 2004.


title: Molly Hatchet

text: John Galvin, though he continued to appear on the band's albums, was again not touring with the band in the 2000s (except for a short European tour in December 2001). Tim Donovan (1997-2002), Scott Woods (2002), Jeff Ravenscraft (2003-2004), Gary Corbett (2004) and Richie Del Favero (2004-2005) played live keyboards up until 2005, after which the group dispensed with having a touring keyboardist for a while.


title: Molly Hatchet

text: Bassist Jerry Scott was replaced by J.J. Strickland in May 2003, by Tim Lindsey, former Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Rossington Band, Artimus Pyle Band and the Mind Garden (with Dave Hlubek) bassist coming full circle back to his roots, took over in June 2003.


title: Molly Hatchet

text: "Warriors of the Rainbow Bridge" (May 2005) featured the return of Hlubek after Rutter had left. But another guitarist, Jimbo Manion, played alongside Ingram until Hlubek had satisfied his other commitments and was able to return full time later that year.


title: Molly Hatchet

text: Danny Joe Brown died on March 10, 2005, at his home in Davie, Florida. He was 53. The cause was kidney failure. On June 19, 2006, guitarist Duane Roland died at his home in St. Augustine, Florida at the age of 53. His death was listed as being of "natural causes" according to a June 25, 2006 obituary in "The Boston Globe".


title: Molly Hatchet

text: The band's "Southern Rock Masters" (April 2008) was an album of classic rock covers and was released again in a slightly re-altered form as "Regrinding the Axes" (June 2012).


title: Molly Hatchet

text: In 2008 keyboardist John Galvin returned to the live stage again after Hlubek's recurring health issues prevented him from appearing at all of the band's gigs.


title: Molly Hatchet

text: In 2011 drummer Shawn Beamer had a heart attack and a temporary drummer Scott Craig was brought in. In 2013, Beamer returned to the band.


title: Molly Hatchet

text: Despite there being no original members left, Molly Hatchet continues to perform live as of 2022, and their current lineup features half of the "Lightning Strikes Twice"–era lineup (keyboardist John Galvin and guitarist Bobby Ingram) as well as drummer Shawn Beamer, bassist Tim Lindsey and vocalist Jimmy Elkins, who replaced McCormack in 2019. In June 2022, Ingram reported to the "Creston News Advertiser" that a new Molly Hatchet album is in the works and intended for a late 2023 release.


title: Molly Hatchet

text: Molly Hatchet took its name from a prostitute who allegedly mutilated and decapitated her clients. One iconic aspect of Molly Hatchet's image is that many of the band's album covers feature art inspired by heroic fantasy, several of which were painted by artists such as Frank Frazetta, Boris Vallejo, and Paul R. Gregory.


title: Evangelism

text: In Christianity, evangelism (or witnessing) is the act of preaching the gospel with the intention of sharing the message and teachings of Jesus Christ.


title: Evangelism

text: Christians who specialize in evangelism are often known as evangelists, whether they are in their home communities or living as missionaries in the field, although some Christian traditions refer to such people as "missionaries" in either case. Some Christian traditions consider evangelists to be in a leadership position; they may be found preaching to large meetings or in governance roles. In addition, Christian groups who encourage evangelism are sometimes known as evangelistic or "evangelist".


title: Evangelism

text: The word "evangelist" comes from the Koine Greek word (transliterated as "euangelion") via Latinised "evangelium" as used in the canonical titles of the Four Gospels, authored by (or attributed to) Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John (also known as the Four Evangelists). The Greek word originally meant a reward given to the messenger for good news ( = "good", = "I bring a message"; the word "angel" comes from the same root) and later "good news" itself.


title: Evangelism

text: The verb form of "euangelion", (translated as "evangelism"), occurs rarely in older Greek literature outside the New Testament, making its meaning more difficult to ascertain. Parallel texts of the Gospels of Luke and Mark reveal a synonymous relationship between the verb "euangelizo" () and a Greek verb "kerusso" (), which means "to proclaim".


title: Evangelism

text: Evangelism can include preaching or distributing bibles, tracts, newspapers and/or magazines, by the media, street evangelists, etc.


title: Evangelism

text: The Bible records that Jesus sent out his disciples to evangelize by visiting peoples homes in pairs of two believers (cf. ). In the same text, Jesus mentioned that few people were willing to evangelize, despite there being many people who would be receptive to his Gospel message.


title: Evangelism

text: The child evangelism movement is a Christian evangelism movement that originated in the 20th century. It focuses on the 4/14 Window which centers on evangelizing children between the ages of 4 and 14 years old.


title: Evangelism

text: Beginning in the 1970s, a group of Christian athletes known as The Power Team spawned an entire genre of Christian entertainment based on strong-man exploits mixed with a Christian message and usually accompanied by an opportunity to respond with a prayer for salvation.


title: Evangelism

text: New opportunities for evangelism have been provided in recent decades by increased travel opportunities and by instant communications over the internet.


title: Evangelism

text: In 1831, the Presbyterian Mission Agency was founded by the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America.


title: Evangelism

text: Various evangelical mission organizations have specialized in evangelism throughout history. In 1792, BMS World Mission was founded in Kettering, England by William Carey. In 1814, the American Baptist International Ministries was founded by the American Baptist Churches USA in United States. In 1865, OMF International was founded by Hudson Taylor in England. In 1893, in Lagos in Nigeria, SIM was founded by Walter Gowans, Rowland Bingham, and Thomas Kent. Samuel E. Hill, John H. Nicholson, and William J. Knights founded Gideons International, an organization which distributes free Bibles to hotels, motels, hospitals, military bases, prisons, schools, and universities, in Janesville in Wisconsin, United States, in 1899.


title: Evangelism

text: In 1960, more than half of the Protestant American missionaries were evangelical. American and European Pentecostal missionaries are also numerous, Pentecostalism can develop independently by non-foreign residents in various regions of the world, notably in Africa, South America, and Asia.


title: Evangelism

text: In 1974, Billy Graham and the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization organized the First International Congress on World Evangelization in Lausanne.


title: Evangelism

text: In 2004, South Korea became the second-largest source of missionaries in the world, after the United States and ahead of England.


title: Evangelism

text: Some consider evangelism to be proselytising, while others argue it is free speech. The fact that evangelicals speak about their faith in public is often criticized by the media and it is often associated with proselytism. According to the evangelicals, freedom of religion and freedom of expression allow them to discuss their faith like they would discuss other topics.


title: Evangelism

text: Christian films made by American evangelical production companies are also regularly associated with proselytism. According to Sarah-Jane Murray, screenwriting teacher at the US Film and Christian Television Commission United, Christian films are works of art, not proselytism. For Hubert de Kerangat, communications manager at SAJE Distribution, a distributor of these American Christian films in France, if Christian films are considered proselytism, all films are a form of proselytism, since films of all genres could each be said to carry a message.


title: Drink

text: A drink or beverage is a liquid intended for human consumption. In addition to their basic function of satisfying thirst, drinks play important roles in human culture. Common types of drinks include plain drinking water, milk, juice, smoothies and soft drinks. Traditionally warm beverages include coffee, tea, and hot chocolate. Caffeinated drinks that contain the stimulant caffeine have a long history.


title: Drink

text: In addition, alcoholic drinks such as wine, beer, and liquor, which contain the drug ethanol, have been part of human culture for more than 8,000 years. Non-alcoholic drinks often signify drinks that would normally contain alcohol, such as beer, wine and cocktails, but are made with a sufficiently low concentration of alcohol by volume. The category includes drinks that have undergone an alcohol removal process such as non-alcoholic beers and de-alcoholized wines.


title: Drink

text: When the human body becomes dehydrated, a person experiences thirst. This craving of fluids results in an instinctive "need to drink". Thirst is regulated by the hypothalamus in response to subtle changes in the body's electrolyte levels, and also as a result of changes in the volume of blood circulating. The complete deprivation of drinks (that is, water) will result in death faster than the removal of any other substance besides oxygen. Water and milk have been basic drinks throughout history. As water is essential for life, it has also been the carrier of many diseases.


title: Drink

text: As society developed, techniques were discovered to create alcoholic drinks from the plants that were available in different areas. The earliest archaeological evidence of wine production yet found has been at sites in Georgia ( BCE) and Iran ( BCE). Beer may have been known in Neolithic Europe as far back as 3000 BCE, and was mainly brewed on a domestic scale. The invention of beer (and bread) has been argued to be responsible for humanity's ability to develop technology and build civilization. Tea likely originated in Yunnan, China, during the Shang Dynasty (1500 BCE–1046 BCE) as a medicinal drink.


title: Drink

text: Drinking has been a large part of socialising throughout the centuries. In Ancient Greece, a social gathering for the purpose of drinking was known as a symposium, where watered down wine would be drunk. The purpose of these gatherings could be anything from serious discussions to direct indulgence. In Ancient Rome, a similar concept of a "convivium" took place regularly.


title: Drink

text: Many early societies considered alcohol a gift from the gods, leading to the creation of gods such as Dionysus. Other religions forbid, discourage, or restrict the drinking of alcoholic drinks for various reasons. In some regions with a dominant religion the production, sale, and consumption of alcoholic drinks is forbidden to everybody, regardless of religion.


title: Drink

text: Toasting is a method of honouring a person or wishing good will by taking a drink. Another tradition is that of the loving cup, at weddings or other celebrations such as sports victories a group will share a drink in a large receptacle, shared by everyone until empty.


title: Drink

text: In East Africa and Yemen, coffee was used in native religious ceremonies. As these ceremonies conflicted with the beliefs of the Christian church, the Ethiopian Church banned the secular consumption of coffee until the reign of Emperor Menelik II. The drink was also banned in Ottoman Turkey during the 17th century for political reasons and was associated with rebellious political activities in Europe.


title: Drink

text: A drink is a form of liquid which has been prepared for human consumption. The preparation can include a number of different steps, some prior to transport, others immediately prior to consumption.


title: Drink

text: Water is the chief constituent in all drinks, and the primary ingredient in most. Water is purified prior to drinking. Methods for purification include filtration and the addition of chemicals, such as chlorination. The importance of purified water is highlighted by the World Health Organization, who point out 94% of deaths from diarrhea – the third biggest cause of infectious death worldwide at 1.8 million annually – could be prevented by improving the quality of the victim's environment, particularly safe water.


title: Drink

text: Pasteurisation is the process of heating a liquid for a period of time at a specified temperature, then immediately cooling. The process reduces the growth of microorganisms within the liquid, thereby increasing the time before spoilage. It is primarily used on milk, which prior to pasteurisation is commonly infected with pathogenic bacteria and therefore is more likely than any other part of the common diet in the developed world to cause illness.


title: Drink

text: The process of extracting juice from fruits and vegetables can take a number of forms. Simple crushing of most fruits will provide a significant amount of liquid, though a more intense pressure can be applied to get the maximum amount of juice from the fruit. Both crushing and pressing are processes used in the production of wine.


title: Drink

text: Infusion is the process of extracting flavours from plant material by allowing the material to remain suspended within water. This process is used in the production of teas, herbal teas and can be used to prepare coffee (when using a coffee press).


title: Drink

text: The name is derived from the word "percolate" which means "to cause (a solvent) to pass through a permeable substance especially for extracting a soluble constituent".


title: Drink

text: In the case of coffee-brewing the solvent is water, the permeable substance is the coffee grounds, and the soluble constituents are the chemical compounds that give coffee its color, taste, aroma, and stimulating properties.


title: Drink

text: Fermentation is a metabolic process that converts sugar to ethanol. Fermentation has been used by humans for the production of drinks since the Neolithic age. In winemaking, grape juice is combined with yeast in an anaerobic environment to allow the fermentation. The amount of sugar in the wine and the length of time given for fermentation determine the alcohol level and the sweetness of the wine.


title: Drink

text: When brewing beer, there are four primary ingredients – water, grain, yeast and hops. The grain is encouraged to germinate by soaking and drying in heat, a process known as malting. It is then milled before soaking again to create the sugars needed for fermentation. This process is known as mashing. Hops are added for flavouring, then the yeast is added to the mixture (now called wort) to start the fermentation process.


title: Drink

text: Distillation is a method of separating mixtures based on differences in volatility of components in a boiling liquid mixture. It is one of the methods used in the purification of water. It is also a method of producing spirits from milder alcoholic drinks.


title: Drink

text: An alcoholic mixed drink that contains two or more ingredients is referred to as a cocktail. Cocktails were originally a mixture of spirits, sugar, water, and bitters. The term is now often used for almost any mixed drink that contains alcohol, including mixers, mixed shots, etc. A cocktail today usually contains one or more kinds of spirit and one or more mixers, such as soda or fruit juice. Additional ingredients may be sugar, honey, milk, cream, and various herbs.


title: Drink

text: A non-alcoholic drink is one that contains little or no alcohol. This category includes low-alcohol beer, non-alcoholic wine, and apple cider if they contain a sufficiently low concentration of alcohol by volume (ABV). The exact definition of what is "non-alcoholic" and what is not depends on local laws: in the United Kingdom, "alcohol-free beer" is under 0.05% ABV, "de-alcoholised beer" is under 0.5%, while "low-alcohol beer" can contain no more than 1.2% ABV. The term "soft drink" specifies the absence of alcohol in contrast to "hard drink" and "drink". The term "drink" is theoretically neutral, but often is used in a way that suggests alcoholic content. Drinks such as soda pop, sparkling water, iced tea, lemonade, root beer, fruit punch, milk, hot chocolate, tea, coffee, milkshakes, and tap water and energy drinks are all soft drinks.


title: Drink

text: Water is the world's most consumed drink, however, 97% of water on Earth is non-drinkable salt water. Fresh water is found in rivers, lakes, wetlands, groundwater, and frozen glaciers. Less than 1% of the Earth's fresh water supplies are accessible through surface water and underground sources which are cost effective to retrieve.


title: Drink

text: Milk is regarded as one of the "original" drinks; milk is the primary source of nutrition for babies. In many cultures of the world, especially the Western world, humans continue to consume dairy milk beyond infancy, using the milk of other animals (especially cattle, goats and sheep) as a drink.


title: Drink

text: Carbonated drinks refer to drinks which have carbon dioxide dissolved into them. This can happen naturally through fermenting and in natural water spas or artificially by the dissolution of carbon dioxide under pressure. The first commercially available artificially carbonated drink is believed to have been produced by Thomas Henry in the late 1770s.


title: Drink

text: Cola, orange, various roots, ginger, and lemon/lime are commonly used to create non-alcoholic carbonated drinks; sugars and preservatives may be added later.


title: Drink

text: The most consumed carbonated soft drinks are produced by three major global brands: Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and the Dr Pepper Snapple Group.


title: Drink

text: Fruit juice is a natural product that contains few or no additives. Citrus products such as orange juice and tangerine juice are familiar breakfast drinks, while grapefruit juice, pineapple, apple, grape, lime, and lemon juice are also common. Coconut water is a highly nutritious and refreshing juice. Many kinds of berries are crushed; their juices are mixed with water and sometimes sweetened. Raspberry, blackberry and currants are popular juices drinks but the percentage of water also determines their nutritive value. Grape juice allowed to ferment produces wine.


title: Drink

text: Fruits are highly perishable so the ability to extract juices and store them was of significant value. Some fruits are highly acidic and mixing them with water and sugars or honey was often necessary to make them palatable. Fruits can also be blended with ice and other ingredients to make a smoothie. Early storage of fruit juices was labor-intensive, requiring the crushing of the fruits and the mixing of the resulting pure juices with sugars before bottling.


title: Drink

text: Vegetable juices are usually served warm or cold. Different types of vegetables can be used to make vegetable juice such as carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, celery and many more. Some vegetable juices are mixed with some fruit juice to make the vegetable juice taste better. Many popular vegetable juices, particularly ones with high tomato content, are high in sodium, and therefore consumption of them for health must be carefully considered. Some vegetable juices provide the same health benefits as whole vegetables in terms of reducing risks of cardiovascular disease and cancer.


title: Drink

text: Plant milk is a general term for any milk-like product that is derived from a plant source. The most common varieties internationally are soy milk, almond milk, rice milk and coconut milk.


title: Drink

text: A nightcap is a drink taken shortly before bedtime to induce sleep. For example, a small alcoholic drink or a cup of warm milk can supposedly promote a good night's sleep. Today, most nightcaps and relaxation drinks are generally non-alcoholic beverages containing calming ingredients. They are considered beverages which serve to relax a person. Unlike other calming beverages, such as tea, warm milk or milk with honey; relaxation drinks almost universally contain more than one active ingredient. Relaxation drinks have been known to contain other natural ingredients and are usually free of caffeine and alcohol but some have claimed to contain marijuana.


title: Drink

text: A drink is considered "alcoholic" if it contains ethanol, commonly known as alcohol (although in chemistry the definition of "alcohol" includes many other compounds). Beer has been a part of human civilisation for around 8,000 years.


title: Drink

text: Beer is an alcoholic drink produced by the saccharification of starch and fermentation of the resulting sugar. The starch and saccharification enzymes are often derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat. Most beer is also flavoured with hops, which add bitterness and act as a natural preservative, though other flavourings such as herbs or fruit may occasionally be included. The preparation of beer is called brewing. Beer is the world's most widely consumed alcoholic drink, and is the third-most consumed drink overall, after water and tea. It is said to have been discovered by goddess Ninkasi around 5300 BCE, when she accidentally discovered yeast after leaving grain in jars that were later rained upon and left for several days. Women have been the chief creators of beer throughout history due to its association with domesticity and it, throughout much of history, being brewed in the home for family consumption. Only in recent history have men begun to dabble in the field. It is thought by some to be the oldest fermented drink.


title: Drink

text: Some of humanity's earliest known writings refer to the production and distribution of beer: the Code of Hammurabi included laws regulating beer and beer parlours, and "The Hymn to Ninkasi", a prayer to the Mesopotamian goddess of beer, served as both a prayer and as a method of remembering the recipe for beer in a culture with few literate people. Today, the brewing industry is a global business, consisting of several dominant multinational companies and many thousands of smaller producers ranging from brewpubs to regional breweries.


title: Drink

text: Cider is a fermented alcoholic drink made from fruit juice, most commonly and traditionally apple juice, but also the juice of peaches, pears ("Perry" cider) or other fruit. Cider may be made from any variety of apple, but certain cultivars grown solely for use in cider are known as cider apples. The United Kingdom has the highest per capita consumption of cider, as well as the largest cider-producing companies in the world, , the U.K. produces 600 million litres of cider each year (130 million imperial gallons).


title: Drink

text: Wine is an alcoholic drink made from fermented grapes or other fruits. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, water, or other nutrients. Yeast consumes the sugars in the grapes and converts them into alcohol and carbon dioxide. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts produce different styles of wine. The well-known variations result from the very complex interactions between the biochemical development of the fruit, reactions involved in fermentation, terroir and subsequent appellation, along with human intervention in the overall process. The final product may contain tens of thousands of chemical compounds in amounts varying from a few percent to a few parts per billion.


title: Drink

text: Wines made from produce besides grapes are usually named after the product from which they are produced (for example, rice wine, pomegranate wine, apple wine and elderberry wine) and are generically called fruit wine. The term "wine" can also refer to starch-fermented or fortified drinks having higher alcohol content, such as barley wine, huangjiu, or sake.


title: Drink

text: Wine has a rich history dating back thousands of years, with the earliest production so far discovered having occurred  BC in Georgia. It had reached the Balkans by  BC and was consumed and celebrated in ancient Greece and Rome.


title: Drink

text: From its earliest appearance in written records, wine has also played an important role in religion. Red wine was closely associated with blood by the ancient Egyptians, who, according to Plutarch, avoided its free consumption as late as the 7th-century BC Saite dynasty, "thinking it to be the blood of those who had once battled against the gods". The Greek cult and mysteries of Dionysus, carried on by the Romans in their Bacchanalia, were the origins of western theater. Judaism incorporates it in the Kiddush and Christianity in its Eucharist, while alcohol consumption was forbidden in Islam.


title: Drink

text: Spirits are distilled beverages that contain no added sugar and have at least 20% alcohol by volume (ABV). Popular spirits include borovička, brandy, gin, rum, slivovitz, tequila, vodka, and whisky. Brandy is a spirit created by distilling wine, whilst vodka may be distilled from any starch- or sugar-rich plant matter; most vodka today is produced from grains such as sorghum, corn, rye or wheat.


title: Drink

text: Coffee is a brewed drink prepared from the roasted seeds of several species of an evergreen shrub of the genus "Coffea". The two most common sources of coffee beans are the highly regarded "Coffea arabica", and the "robusta" form of the hardier "Coffea canephora". Coffee plants are cultivated in more than 70 countries. Once ripe, coffee "berries" are picked, processed, and dried to yield the seeds inside. The seeds are then roasted to varying degrees, depending on the desired flavor, before being ground and brewed to create coffee.


title: Drink

text: Coffee is slightly acidic (pH 5.0–5.1) and can have a stimulating effect on humans because of its caffeine content. It is one of the most popular drinks in the world. It can be prepared and presented in a variety of ways. The effect of coffee on human health has been a subject of many studies; however, results have varied in terms of coffee's relative benefit.


title: Drink

text: Coffee cultivation first took place in southern Arabia; the earliest credible evidence of coffee-drinking appears in the middle of the 15th century in the Sufi shrines of Yemen.


title: Drink

text: Coffee may have been used socially in the renaissance period of the 17th century. The increasing trades between Europe and North Africa regions made coffee more widely available to Europeans gathering at social locations that served coffee, possibly contributing to the growth of coffeehouses.


title: Drink

text: Hot chocolate, also known as drinking chocolate or cocoa, is a heated drink consisting of shaved chocolate, melted chocolate or cocoa powder, heated milk or water, and usually a sweetener. Hot chocolate may be topped with whipped cream. Hot chocolate made with melted chocolate is sometimes called drinking chocolate, characterized by less sweetness and a thicker consistency.


title: Drink

text: The first chocolate drink is believed to have been created by the Mayans around 2,500-3,000 years ago, and a cocoa drink was an essential part of Aztec culture by 1400 AD, by which they referred to as xocōlātl. The drink became popular in Europe after being introduced from Mexico in the New World and has undergone multiple changes since then. Until the 19th century, hot chocolate was even used medicinally to treat ailments such as liver and stomach diseases.Hot chocolate is consumed throughout the world and comes in multiple variations, including the spiced "chocolate para mesa" of Latin America, the very thick "cioccolata calda" served in Italy and "chocolate a la taza" served in Spain, and the thinner hot cocoa consumed in the United States. Prepared hot chocolate can be purchased from a range of establishments, including cafeterias, fast food restaurants, coffeehouses and teahouses. Powdered hot chocolate mixes, which can be added to boiling water or hot milk to make the drink at home, are sold at grocery stores and online.


title: Drink

text: Tea, the second most consumed drink in the world, is produced from infusing dried leaves of the "camellia sinensis" shrub, in boiling water. There are many ways in which tea is prepared for consumption: lemon or milk and sugar are among the most common additives worldwide. Other additions include butter and salt in Bhutan, Nepal, and Tibet; bubble tea in Taiwan; fresh ginger in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore; mint in North Africa and Senegal; cardamom in Central Asia; rum to make Jagertee in Central Europe; and coffee to make yuanyang in Hong Kong. Tea is also served differently from country to country: in China and Japan tiny cups are used to serve tea; in Thailand and the United States tea is often served cold (as "iced tea") or with a lot of sweetener; Indians boil tea with milk and a blend of spices as masala chai; tea is brewed with a samovar in Iran, Kashmir, Russia and Turkey; and in the Australian Outback it is traditionally brewed in a billycan.


title: Drink

text: Tea leaves can be processed in different ways resulting in a drink which appears and tastes different. Chinese yellow and green tea are steamed, roasted and dried; Oolong tea is semi-oxidised and appears green-black and black teas are fully oxidised.


title: Drink

text: Around the world, people refer to other herbal infusions as "teas"; it is also argued that these were popular long before the "Camellia sinensis" shrub was used for tea making. Leaves, flowers, roots or bark can be used to make a herbal infusion and can be bought fresh, dried or powdered.


title: Drink

text: Throughout history, people have come together in establishments to socialise whilst drinking. This includes cafés and coffeehouses, focus on providing hot drinks as well as light snacks. Many coffee houses in the Middle East, and in West Asian immigrant districts in the Western world, offer "shisha" ("nargile" in Turkish and Greek), flavored tobacco smoked through a hookah. Espresso bars are a type of coffeehouse that specialize in serving espresso and espresso-based drinks.


title: Drink

text: In China and Japan, the establishment would be a tea house, where people would socialise while drinking tea. Chinese scholars have used the teahouse as a place to share ideas.


title: Drink

text: Alcoholic drinks are served in drinking establishments, which have different cultural connotations. For example, pubs are fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia, Canada, New England, Metro Detroit, South Africa and New Zealand. In many places, especially in villages, a pub can be the focal point of the community. The writings of Samuel Pepys describe the pub as the heart of England. Many pubs are controlled by breweries, so cask ale or keg beer may be a better value than wines and spirits.


title: Drink

text: In contrast, types of bars range from seedy bars or nightclubs, sometimes termed "dive bars", to elegant places of entertainment for the elite. Bars provide stools or chairs that are placed at tables or counters for their patrons. The term "bar" is derived from the specialized counter on which drinks are served. Some bars have entertainment on a stage, such as a live band, comedians, go-go dancers, or strippers. Patrons may sit or stand at the bar and be served by the bartender, or they may sit at tables and be served by cocktail servers.


title: Drink

text: Food and drink are often paired together to enhance the taste experience. This primarily happens with wine and a culture has grown up around the process. Weight, flavors and textures can either be contrasted or complemented. In recent years, food magazines began to suggest particular wines with recipes and restaurants would offer multi-course dinners matched with a specific wine for each course.


title: Drink

text: Different drinks have unique receptacles for their consumption. This is sometimes purely for presentations purposes, such as for cocktails. In other situations, the drinkware has practical application, such as coffee cups which are designed for insulation or brandy snifters which are designed to encourage evaporation but trap the aroma within the glass.


title: Drink

text: Many glasses include a stem, which allows the drinker to hold the glass without affecting the temperature of the drink. In champagne glasses, the bowl is designed to retain champagne's signature carbonation, by reducing the surface area at the opening of the bowl. Historically, champagne has been served in a champagne coupe, the shape of which allowed carbonation to dissipate even more rapidly than from a standard wine glass.


title: Drink

text: and it was the world's seventh-largest legal agricultural export by value in 2005. Green (unroasted) coffee is one of the most traded agricultural commodities in the world.


title: Drink

text: Some drinks, such as wine, can be used as an alternative investment. This can be achieved by either purchasing and reselling individual bottles or cases of particular wines, or purchasing shares in an investment wine fund that pools investors' capital.


title: Sumeet Saigal

text: Sumeet Saigal (born 18 February 1966) is a former Indian Bollywood actor and producer who was active in the Bollywood film industry from 1987 to 1995, appearing in over 30 films.


title: Sumeet Saigal

text: Saigal made his debut in the 1987 film "Insaniyat Ke Dushman" and played leading or supporting roles in films opposite actors like Sanjay Dutt, Govinda and Mithun Chakraborty amongst others. Some of his well-known films are "Imaandaar" (1987), "Param Dharam" (1987), "Lashkar" (1989), "Bahaar Aane Tak" (1990), "Pati Patni Aur Tawaif" (1990) and "Gunaah" (1993). In 1995, he acted in his last films "Saajan Ki Baahon Mein" and "Sauda" and left the film industry. After 12 years out of the limelight, he directed the music video for a song featured in the film "" in 2007. In 2010, he produced the horror film "Rokkk", starring Udita Goswami and Tanushree Dutta. Currently, he has a production company named "Sumeet Arts", which dubs South Indian films into Hindi.


title: Sumeet Saigal

text: Sumeet was married to Shaheen, the niece of actress Saira Banu in 1990 and they have one daughter named Sayyeshaa, born in 1997, who is a film actress and made her debut in 2015. The couple got divorced in 2003.


title: Cosmopolis (film)

text: Cosmopolis is a 2012 Canadian drama-thriller film written, produced, and directed by David Cronenberg and starring Robert Pattinson in the lead with Paul Giamatti, Samantha Morton, Sarah Gadon, Mathieu Amalric, Juliette Binoche, Jay Baruchel and Kevin Durand. It is based on the novel of the same name by Don DeLillo. On 25 May 2012, the film premiered in competition for the Palme d'Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, drawing mixed early critical reactions. The film was released in Canada on 8 June 2012, and began a limited release in the United States on 17 August 2012 by eOne Films. It is Cronenberg's first foray back into script writing since 1999's "eXistenZ".


title: Cosmopolis (film)

text: Twenty-eight-year-old billionaire currency speculator/asset manager Eric Packer rides slowly across Manhattan amid traffic jams, in his state-of-the-art luxury stretch limousine office, to his preferred barber. Various visitors discuss the meaning of life and inconsequential trivia. The traffic jams are caused by a visit of the President of the United States and the funeral of Eric's favorite musician, a rap artist whose music he plays in one of his two private elevators. Despite devastating currency speculation losses over the course of the day, Packer fantasizes about buying the Rothko Chapel.


title: Cosmopolis (film)

text: He meets his wife, Elise, in her taxi, for coffee, in a bookstore, as well as outside a theater. She declines sex with him. Packer has sex with two other women. When a day of poor trading destroys a large part of his wealth, his wife takes this as a reason to dissolve their union.


title: Cosmopolis (film)

text: Anti-capitalist activists demonstrate on the street. They wave rats and declare, "A spectre is haunting the world: the spectre of capitalism". They spray-paint Packer's limo and later subject him to a pieing. Packer learns that an assassin is out to kill him, but seems curiously uninterested in who the person might be.


title: Cosmopolis (film)

text: In his car, his doctor performs his daily medical checkup. Eric worries about the doctor's finding that he has an asymmetrical prostate. As the currency speculation wipes out most of his fortune, Eric's world begins to disintegrate. Eventually he kills his bodyguard. At the destination, the barber, who knew his father, cuts Eric's hair on one side. The barber and limo driver discuss their respective careers driving cabs. The barber gives Eric his gun because he had thrown away the bodyguard's.


title: Cosmopolis (film)

text: Eric follows a path of further self-destruction, visiting his potential murderer, former employee Richard Sheets, a.k.a. Benno Levin. Eric seems ready to commit suicide, but instead deliberately shoots himself in the hand. Sheets/Levin, who feels adrift in the capitalist system, explains that Eric's mistake in speculating was looking for perfect symmetry and patterns in the currency market: he should have looked for the lopsided—his body with its asymmetrical prostate was telling him this. As Sheets points the gun to Eric's head, Eric seems to have overcome his fear of death as he waits for Sheets to pull the trigger. The film ends without indicating the outcome.


title: Cosmopolis (film)

text: News about a film adaptation of "Cosmopolis" first emerged on 10 February 2009 when Geoffrey Macnab, writing for Screendaily.com, reported that "In his most ambitious project to date, international producer Paulo Branco is plotting a $10m–12m film based on the novel "Cosmopolis" by legendary US writer Don DeLillo. Branco's Alfama Films is producing the film about a day in the life of a young billionaire financier who, over the course of a traumatic day, loses all his wealth. A director will be named shortly and DeLillo is on board to collaborate." On 26 July 2009, it was announced that Canadian director David Cronenberg had become involved in the project and would now bring the novel to the screen. The film was scheduled to begin filming in 2010, with Paulo Branco's Paris-based production house Alfama Films co-producing with Cronenberg's Toronto Antenna Ltd. On 3 September 2009, Paulo Branco officially confirmed to Screendaily.com that "Cronenberg has now finished his screenplay and is now looking to cast the film." On 13 January 2010, it was reported that Cronenberg was still committed to the film, although a cast and a starting date for production were yet to be announced. Cronenberg said that everyone was "happy with the script" and he was "very fond" of the project. Principal photography took place in Toronto and was completed in July 2011. Colin Farrell was initially cast in the main role but left due to scheduling difficulties with "Total Recall". He was later replaced by Pattinson. Marion Cotillard was involved in the project but also left because of scheduling conflicts.


title: Cosmopolis (film)

text: The soundtrack reunited composer Howard Shore and the Canadian indie rock band Metric who had previously collaborated on a song for (which had also starred Robert Pattinson). While writing the score for "Cosmopolis", Shore desired a particular live sound and invited Metric to perform the score and co-write three songs. The music was recorded in November 2011 at the band's own Giant Studios in Toronto, produced by Shore and Metric guitarist Jimmy Shaw and mixed by John O'Mahony at "Liberty Studios" in Toronto and Electric Lady Studios in New York City. The "Cosmopolis" soundtrack also features "Mecca" by Somali-Canadian singer/rapper K'naan with lyrics by K'naan and Don DeLillo. "Film Music Magazine"'s Daniel Schweiger praised the soundtrack as "an environment of hallucinatory beauty. There's a real intelligence to the rock-alt. material here that goes beyond many indie star-composer collaborations."


title: Cosmopolis (film)

text: The soundtrack album features four songs. James Christopher Monger of Allmusic.com lauded Emily Haines for her "strong vocal performances on the ghostly "Long to Live" and "Call Me Home," switching to a full-on banshee wail for the pulsating "I Don't Want to Wake Up"" and wrote that the score was "one of the most engaging soundtracks of the year." "Long to Live" won Achievement in Music: Original Song at the 1st Canadian Screen Awards.


title: Cosmopolis (film)

text: "Cosmopolis" received generally positive reviews. Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a "fresh" 65%, based on 180 reviews, with an average rating of 6.03/10. The consensus says, "Though some may find it cold and didactic, "Cosmopolis" benefits from David Cronenberg's precise direction, resulting in a psychologically complex adaptation of Don DeLillo's novel."


title: Cosmopolis (film)

text: Justin Chang of "Variety" wrote: "An eerily precise match of filmmaker and material, "Cosmopolis" probes the soullessness of the 1% with the cinematic equivalent of latex gloves. ... Pattinson's excellent performance reps an indispensable asset." Robbie Collin of "The Telegraph" gave the film four stars out of five, stating, "It's a smart inversion of Cronenberg's 1999 film "eXistenZ": rather than being umbilically connected to a virtual world, Packer is hermetically sealed off from the real one. At its heart is a sensational central performance from Robert Pattinson as Packer. Pattinson plays him like a human caldera; stony on the surface, with volcanic chambers of nervous energy and self-loathing churning deep below." Ross Miller of "Thoughts On Film" also gave the film four out of five stars stating that, "If, like me, you're in-tune with the tone, style and direction of the film then it provides for a fascinating and intellectually nourishing experience." Owen Gleiberman of "Entertainment Weekly" stated, ""Cosmopolis" includes its own version of the Occupy hordes: scruffy, vengeful protesters who run around the streets, and into restaurants, brandishing the bodies of dead rats. ... Pattinson, pale and predatory even without his pasty-white vampire makeup, delivers his frigid pensées with rhythmic confidence." A very positive review came from "The London Film Review", which said "The fact is, Cronenberg made a movie for YOU. The 99%. A movie that reflects, comments on[,] satirizes and parodies our time."


title: Cosmopolis (film)

text: However, Todd McCarthy of "The Hollywood Reporter" criticized the film, writing, "Lifeless, stagey and lacking a palpable subversive pulse despite the ready opportunities offered by the material, this stillborn adaptation of Don DeLillo's novel initially will attract some Robert Pattinson fans but will be widely met with audience indifference."


title: Cosmopolis (film)

text: "Cahiers du Cinéma" named it the year's second-best title, while "Sight & Sound" listed it as the eighth-best film of 2012. Keith Uhlich of "Time Out New York" named "Cosmopolis" the tenth-best film of 2012.


title: Cosmopolis (film)

text: Film critic Amy Taubin named "Cosmopolis" one of her ten favorite films of all time when she participated in the 2012 "Sight & Sound" critics' poll.


title: History of Italy

text: The history of Italy covers the ancient period, the Middle Ages, and the modern era. Since classical antiquity, ancient Etruscans, various Italic peoples (such as the Latins, Samnites, and Umbri), Celts, "Magna Graecia" colonists, and other ancient peoples have inhabited the Italian Peninsula. In antiquity, Italy was the homeland of the Romans and the metropole of the Roman Empire's provinces. Rome was founded as a Kingdom in 753 BC and became a republic in 509 BC, when the Roman monarchy was overthrown in favor of a government of the Senate and the People. The Roman Republic then unified Italy at the expense of the Etruscans, Celts, and Greek colonists of the peninsula. Rome led "Socii", a confederation of the Italic peoples, and later with the rise of Rome dominated Western Europe, Northern Africa, and the Near East.


title: History of Italy

text: The Roman Republic saw its fall after the assassination of Julius Caesar. The Roman Empire later dominated Western Europe and the Mediterranean for many centuries, making immeasurable contributions to the development of Western philosophy, science and art. After the fall of Rome in AD 476, Italy was fragmented in numerous city-states and regional polities; despite seeing famous personalities from its territory and closely related ones (such as Dante Alighieri, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Niccolò Machiavelli, Galileo Galilei, and Napoleon Bonaparte) rise, it remained politically divided to a large extent. The maritime republics, in particular Venice and Genoa, rose to great prosperity through shipping, commerce, and banking, acting as Europe's main port of entry for Asian and Near Eastern imported goods and laying the groundwork for capitalism. Central Italy remained under the Papal States, while Southern Italy remained largely feudal due to a succession of Byzantine, Arab, Norman, Spanish, and Bourbon crowns. The Italian Renaissance spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science, exploration, and art with the start of the modern era. Italian explorers (including Marco Polo, Christopher Columbus (), and Amerigo Vespucci) discovered new routes to the Far East and the New World, helping to usher in the Age of Discovery, although the Italian states had no occasions to found colonial empires outside of the Mediterranean Basin.


title: History of Italy

text: By the mid-19th century, the Italian unification by Giuseppe Garibaldi, backed by the Kingdom of Sardinia, led to the establishment of an Italian nation-state. The new Kingdom of Italy, established in 1861, quickly modernized and built a colonial empire, controlling parts of Africa, and countries along the Mediterranean. At the same time, Southern Italy remained rural and poor, originating the Italian diaspora. In World War I, Italy completed the unification by acquiring Trento and Trieste, and gained a permanent seat in the League of Nations's executive council. Italian nationalists considered World War I a "mutilated victory" because Italy did not have all the territories promised by the Treaty of London (1915) and that sentiment led to the rise of the Fascist dictatorship of Benito Mussolini in 1922. The subsequent participation in World War II with the Axis powers, together with Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan, ended in military defeat, Mussolini's arrest and escape (aided by the German dictator Adolf Hitler), and the Italian Civil War between the Italian Resistance (aided by the Kingdom, now a co-belligerent of the Allies) and a Nazi-fascist puppet state known as the Italian Social Republic.


title: History of Italy

text: Following the liberation of Italy, the fall of the Social Republic, and the killing of Mussolini at the hands of the Resistance, the 1946 Italian constitutional referendum abolished the monarchy and became a republic, reinstated democracy, enjoyed an economic miracle, and founded the European Union (Treaty of Rome), NATO, and the Group of Six (later G7 and G20). It remains a strong economic, cultural, military, and political factor in the 21st century.


title: History of Italy

text: The arrival of the first hominins was 850,000 years ago at Monte Poggiolo. The presence of the "Homo neanderthalensis" has been demonstrated in archaeological findings near Rome and Verona dating to c. 50,000 years ago (late Pleistocene). Homo sapiens sapiens appeared during the upper Palaeolithic: the earliest sites in Italy dated 48,000 years ago is


title: History of Italy

text: Riparo Mochi (Italy). In November 2011 tests conducted at the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit in England on what were previously thought to be Neanderthal baby teeth, which had been unearthed in 1964 dating from between 43,000 and 45,000 years ago. Remains of the later prehistoric age have been found in Lombardy (stone carvings in Valcamonica) and in Sardinia (nuraghe). The most famous is perhaps that of Ötzi the Iceman, the mummy of a mountain hunter found in the Similaun glacier in South Tyrol, dating to c. 3400–3100 BC (Copper Age).


title: History of Italy

text: During the Copper Age, Indoeuropean people migrated to Italy. Approximately four waves of population from north to the Alps have been identified. A first Indoeuropean migration occurred around the mid-3rd millennium BC, from a population who imported coppersmithing. The Remedello culture took over the Po Valley. The second wave of immigration occurred in the Bronze Age, from the late 3rd to the early 2nd millennium BC, with tribes identified with the Beaker culture and by the use of bronze smithing, in the Padan Plain, in Tuscany and on the coasts of Sardinia and Sicily.


title: History of Italy

text: In the mid-2nd millennium BC, a third wave arrived, associated with the Apenninian civilization and the Terramare culture which takes its name from the black earth (terremare) residue of settlement mounds, which have long served the fertilizing needs of local farmers. The occupations of the Terramare people as compared with their Neolithic predecessors may be inferred with comparative certainty. They were still hunters, but had domesticated animals; they were fairly skilful metallurgists, casting bronze in moulds of stone and clay, and they were also agriculturists, cultivating beans, the vine, wheat and flax.


title: History of Italy

text: In the late Bronze Age, from the late 2nd millennium to the early 1st millennium BC, a fourth wave, the Proto-Villanovan culture, related to the Central European Urnfield culture, brought iron-working to the Italian peninsula. Proto-Villanovan culture was part of the central European Urnfield culture system. Similarity has also been noted with the regional groups of Bavaria-Upper Austria and of the middle-Danube. Another hypothesis, however, is that it was a derivation from the previous Terramare culture of the Po Valley. Various authors, such as Marija Gimbutas, associated this culture with the arrival, or the spread, of the proto-Italics into the Italian peninsula.In Sicily, small dolmens dating back to the end of the third millennium BC have recently been found, similar to those found in Spain, Balearic Islands, Sardinia and Apulia. The discoverer of this Culture (whom he named in Sicily "Dolmens Culture") associates it with the arrival on the west coast of Sicily of a cultural wave bringing, the bell-shaped goblet, coming from the Sardinian coast .


title: History of Italy

text: Born in Sardinia and southern Corsica, the Nuraghe civilization lasted from the early Bronze Age (18th century BC) to the 2nd century AD, when the islands were already Romanized. They take their name from the characteristic Nuragic towers, which evolved from the pre-existing megalithic culture, which built dolmens and menhirs. Today more than 7,000 nuraghes dot the Sardinian landscape.


title: History of Italy

text: No written records of this civilization have been discovered, apart from a few possible short epigraphic documents belonging to the last stages of the Nuragic civilization. The only written information there comes from classical literature of the Greeks and Romans, and may be considered more mythological than historical.


title: History of Italy

text: The language (or languages) spoken in Sardinia during the Bronze Age is (are) unknown since there are no written records from the period, although recent research suggests that around the 8th century BC, in the Iron Age, the Nuragic populations may have adopted an alphabet similar to that used in Euboea.


title: History of Italy

text: According to Eduardo Blasco Ferrer, the Paleo-Sardinian language was akin to Proto-Basque and ancient Iberian with faint Indo-European traces, but others believe it was related to Etruscan. Some scholars theorize that there were actually various linguistic areas (two or more) in Nuragic Sardinia, possibly Pre-Indo-Europeans and Indo-Europeans.


title: History of Italy

text: Italy gradually enters the proto-historical period in the 8th century BC, with the introduction of the Phoenician script and its adaptation in various regional variants.


title: History of Italy

text: The Etruscan civilization flourished in central Italy after 800 BC. The origins of the Etruscans are lost in prehistory. The main hypotheses are that they are indigenous, probably stemming from the Villanovan culture. A mitochondrial DNA study of 2013 has suggested that the Etruscans were probably an indigenous population.


title: History of Italy

text: It is widely accepted that Etruscans spoke a non-Indo-European language. Some inscriptions in a similar language have been found on the Aegean island of Lemnos. Etruscans were a monogamous society that emphasized pairing. The historical Etruscans had achieved a form of state with remnants of chiefdom and tribal forms. The Etruscan religion was an immanent polytheism, in which all visible phenomena were considered to be a manifestation of divine power, and deities continually acted in the world of men and could, by human action or inaction, be dissuaded against or persuaded in favor of human affairs.


title: History of Italy

text: Etruscan expansion was focused across the Apennines. Some small towns in the 6th century BC have disappeared during this time, ostensibly consumed by greater, more powerful neighbors. However, there exists no doubt that the political structure of the Etruscan culture was similar, albeit more aristocratic, to Magna Graecia in the south. The mining and commerce of metal, especially copper and iron, led to an enrichment of the Etruscans and to the expansion of their influence in the Italian peninsula and the western Mediterranean sea. Here their interests collided with those of the Greeks, especially in the 6th century BC, when Phoceans of Italy founded colonies along the coast of France, Catalonia and Corsica. This led the Etruscans to ally themselves with the Carthaginians, whose interests also collided with the Greeks.


title: History of Italy

text: Around 540 BC, the Battle of Alalia led to a new distribution of power in the western Mediterranean Sea. Although the battle had no clear winner, Carthage managed to expand its sphere of influence at the expense of the Greeks, and Etruria saw itself relegated to the northern Tyrrhenian Sea with full ownership of Corsica. From the first half of the 5th century, the new international political situation meant the beginning of the Etruscan decline after losing their southern provinces. In 480 BC, Etruria's ally Carthage was defeated by a coalition of Magna Graecia cities led by Syracuse.


title: History of Italy

text: A few years later, in 474 BC, Syracuse's tyrant Hiero defeated the Etruscans at the Battle of Cumae. Etruria's influence over the cities of Latium and Campania weakened, and it was taken over by Romans and Samnites. In the 4th century, Etruria saw a Gallic invasion end its influence over the Po valley and the Adriatic coast. Meanwhile, Rome had started annexing Etruscan cities. This led to the loss of their north provinces. Etruscia was assimilated by Rome around 500 BC.


title: History of Italy

text: The Italic peoples were an ethnolinguistic group identified by their use of Italic languages, a branch of the Indo-European language family. Among the Italic peoples in the Italian peninsula were the Osci, the Veneti, the Samnites, the Latins and the Umbri.


title: History of Italy

text: In the region south of the Tiber ("Latium Vetus"), the Latial culture of the Latins emerged, while in the north-east of the peninsula the Este culture of the Veneti appeared. Roughly in the same period, from their core area in central Italy (modern-day Umbria and Sabina region), the Osco-Umbrians began to emigrate in various waves, through the process of Ver sacrum, the ritualized extension of colonies, in southern Latium, Molise and the whole southern half of the peninsula, replacing the previous tribes, such as the Opici and the Oenotrians. This corresponds with the emergence of the Terni culture, which had strong similarities with the Celtic cultures of Hallstatt and La Tène. The Umbrian necropolis of Terni, which dates back to the 10th century BCE, was identical in every aspect to the Celtic necropolis of the Golasecca culture.


title: History of Italy

text: Before and during the period of the arrival of the Greek and Phoenician immigrants, the island of Sicily was already inhabited by native Italics, which are divided into 3 major groups, the Elymians in the west, the Sicani in the centre, and the Sicels in the east. The Sicels gave Sicily the name it has held since antiquity.


title: History of Italy

text: Among the populations who inhabited northern Italy in the Iron Age, one of the most prominent were the Ligures. It is generally believed that around 2000 BC, they occupied a large area of the Italian peninsula, including much of north-western Italy and all of northern Tuscany (the part that lies north of the Arno river). Since many scholars consider the language of this ancient population to be Pre-Indo-European, they are often not classified as Italics.


title: History of Italy

text: By the mid-first millennium BCE, the Latins of Rome were growing in power and influence. After the Latins had liberated themselves from Etruscan rule they acquired a dominant position among the Italic tribes. Frequent conflict between various Italic tribes followed. The best documented of these are the wars between the Latins and the Samnites.


title: History of Italy

text: The Latins eventually succeeded in unifying the Italic elements in the country. Many non-Latin Italic tribes adopted Latin culture and acquired Roman citizenship. In the early first century BCE, several Italic tribes, in particular the Marsi and the Samnites, rebelled against Roman rule. This conflict is called the Social War. After Roman victory was secured, all peoples in Italy, except for the Celts of the Po Valley, were granted Roman citizenship. In the subsequent centuries, Italic tribes adopted Latin language and culture in a process known as Romanization.


title: History of Italy

text: In the eighth and seventh centuries BC, for various reasons, including demographic crisis (famine, overcrowding, etc.), the search for new commercial outlets and ports, and expulsion from their homeland, Greeks began to settle in Southern Italy (Cerchiai, pp. 14–18). Also during this period, Greek colonies were established in places as widely separated as the eastern coast of the Black Sea, Eastern Libya and Massalia (Marseille) in Gaul. They included settlements in Sicily and the southern part of the Italian peninsula.


title: History of Italy

text: The Romans called the area of Sicily and the foot of Italy Magna Graecia (Latin, "Great Greece"), since it was densely inhabited by the Greeks. The ancient geographers differed on whether the term included Sicily or merely Apulia, Campania and Calabria—Strabo being the most prominent advocate of the wider definitions.


title: History of Italy

text: With this colonization, Greek culture was exported to Italy, in its dialects of the Ancient Greek language, its religious rites and its traditions of the independent "polis". An original Hellenic civilization soon developed, later interacting with the native Italic and Latin civilisations. The most important cultural transplant was the Chalcidean/Cumaean variety of the Greek alphabet, which was adopted by the Etruscans; the Old Italic alphabet subsequently evolved into the Latin alphabet, which became the most widely used alphabet in the world.


title: History of Italy

text: Many of the new Hellenic cities became very rich and powerful, like "Neapolis" (Νεάπολις, Naples, "New City"), "Syracuse", "Acragas", and "Sybaris" (Σύβαρις). Other cities in Magna Graecia included "Tarentum" (Τάρας), "Epizephyrian Locri" (Λοκροί Ἐπιζεφύριοι), "Rhegium" (Ῥήγιον), "Croton" (Κρότων), "Thurii" (Θούριοι), "Elea" (Ἐλέα), "Nola" (Νῶλα), "Ancona" (Ἀγκών), "Syessa" (Σύεσσα), "Bari" (Βάριον), and others.


title: History of Italy

text: After Pyrrhus of Epirus failed in his attempt to stop the spread of Roman hegemony in 282 BC, the south fell under Roman domination and remained in such a position well into the barbarian invasions (the Gladiator War is a notable suspension of imperial control). It was held by the Byzantine Empire after the fall of Rome in the West and even the Lombards failed to consolidate it, though the centre of the south was theirs from Zotto's conquest in the final quarter of the 6th century.


title: History of Italy

text: Little is certain about the history of the Roman Kingdom, as nearly no written records from that time survive, and the histories about it that were written during the Republic and Empire are largely based on legends. However, the history of the Roman Kingdom began with the city's founding, traditionally dated to 753 BC with settlements around the Palatine Hill along the river Tiber in Central Italy, and ended with the overthrow of the kings and the establishment of the Republic in about 509 BC.


title: History of Italy

text: The site of Rome had a ford where the Tiber could be crossed. The Palatine Hill and hills surrounding it presented easily defensible positions in the wide fertile plain surrounding them. All of these features contributed to the success of the city.


title: History of Italy

text: The traditional account of Roman history, which has come down to us through Livy, Plutarch, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, and others, is that in Rome's first centuries it was ruled by a succession of seven kings. The traditional chronology, as codified by Varro, allots 243 years for their reigns, an average of almost 35 years, which, since the work of Barthold Georg Niebuhr, has been generally discounted by modern scholarship.


title: History of Italy

text: The Gauls destroyed much of Rome's historical records when they sacked the city after the Battle of the Allia in 390 BC (Varronian, according to Polybius the battle occurred in 387/6) and what was left was eventually lost to time or theft. With no contemporary records of the kingdom existing, all accounts of the kings must be carefully questioned.


title: History of Italy

text: According to the founding myth of Rome, the city was founded on 21 April 753 BC by twin brothers Romulus and Remus, who descended from the Trojan prince Aeneas and who were grandsons of the Latin King, Numitor of Alba Longa.


title: History of Italy

text: According to tradition and later writers such as Livy, the Roman Republic was established around 509 BC, when the last of the seven kings of Rome, Tarquin the Proud, was deposed by Lucius Junius Brutus, and a system based on annually elected magistrates and various representative assemblies was established. A constitution set a series of checks and balances, and a separation of powers. The most important magistrates were the two consuls, who together exercised executive authority as "imperium", or military command. The consuls had to work with the senate, which was initially an advisory council of the ranking nobility, or patricians, but grew in size and power.


title: History of Italy

text: In the 4th century BC the Republic came under attack by the Gauls, who initially prevailed and sacked Rome. The Romans then took up arms and drove the Gauls back, led by Camillus. The Romans gradually subdued the other peoples on the Italian peninsula, including the Etruscans. The last threat to Roman hegemony in Italy came when Tarentum, a major Greek colony, enlisted the aid of Pyrrhus of Epirus in 281 BC, but this effort failed as well.


title: History of Italy

text: In the 3rd century BC Rome had to face a new and formidable opponent: the powerful Phoenician city-state of Carthage. In the three Punic Wars, Carthage was eventually destroyed and Rome gained control over Hispania, Sicily and North Africa. After defeating the Macedonian and Seleucid Empires in the 2nd century BC, the Romans became the dominant people of the Mediterranean Sea. The conquest of the Hellenistic kingdoms provoked a fusion between Roman and Greek cultures and the Roman elite, once rural, became a luxurious and cosmopolitan one. By this time Rome was a consolidated empire – in the military view – and had no major enemies.


title: History of Italy

text: The one open sore was Spain (Hispania). Roman armies occupied Spain in the early 2nd century BC but encountered stiff resistance from that time down to the age of Augustus. The Celtiberian stronghold of Numantia became the centre of Spanish resistance to Rome in the 140s and 130s BC. Numantia fell and was completely razed to the ground in 133 BC. In 105 BC, the Celtiberians still retained enough of their native vigour and ferocity to drive the Cimbri and Teutones from northern Spain, though these had crushed Roman arms in southern Gaul, inflicting 80,000 casualties on the Roman army which opposed them. The conquest of Hispania was completed in 19 BC—but at a heavy cost and severe losses.


title: History of Italy

text: Towards the end of the 2nd century BC, a huge migration of Germanic tribes took place, led by the Cimbri and the Teutones. These tribes overwhelmed the peoples with whom they came into contact and posed a real threat to Italy itself. At the Battle of Aquae Sextiae and the Battle of Vercellae the Germans were virtually annihilated, which ended the threat. In these two battles the Teutones and Ambrones are said to have lost 290,000 men (200,000 killed and 90,000 captured); and the Cimbri 220,000 men (160,000 killed, and 60,000 captured).


title: History of Italy

text: In the mid-1st century BC, the Republic faced a period of political crisis and social unrest. Into this turbulent scenario emerged the figure of Julius Caesar. Caesar reconciled the two more powerful men in Rome: Marcus Licinius Crassus, his sponsor, and Crassus' rival, Pompey. The First Triumvirate ("three men"), had satisfied the interests of these three men: Crassus, the richest man in Rome, became richer; Pompey exerted more influence in the Senate; and Caesar held consulship and military command in Gaul.


title: History of Italy

text: In 53 BC, the Triumvirate disintegrated at Crassus' death. Crassus had acted as mediator between Caesar and Pompey, and, without him, the two generals began to fight for power. After being victorious in the Gallic Wars and earning respect and praise from the legions, Caesar was a clear menace to Pompey, that tried to legally remove Caesar's legions. To avoid this, Caesar crossed the Rubicon River and invaded Rome in 49 BC, rapidly defeating Pompey. With his sole preeminence over Rome, Caesar gradually accumulated many offices, eventually being granted a dictatorship for perpetuity. He was murdered in 44 BC, in the Ides of March by the "Liberatores". Caesar's assassination caused political and social turmoil in Rome; without the dictator's leadership, the city was ruled by his friend and colleague, Mark Antony. Octavius (Caesar's adopted son), along with general Mark Antony and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, Caesar's best friend, established the Second Triumvirate. Lepidus was forced to retire in 36 BC after betraying Octavian in Sicily. Antony settled in Egypt with his lover, Cleopatra VII. Mark Antony's affair with Cleopatra was seen as an act of treason since she was the queen of a foreign power and Antony was adopting an extravagant and Hellenistic lifestyle that was considered inappropriate for a Roman statesman.


title: History of Italy

text: Following Antony's Donations of Alexandria, which gave to Cleopatra the title of "Queen of Kings", and to their children the regal titles to the newly conquered Eastern territories, the war between Octavian and Mark Antony broke out. Octavian annihilated Egyptian forces in the Battle of Actium in 31 BC. Mark Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide, leaving Octavianus the sole ruler of the Republic.


title: History of Italy

text: After the Battle of Actium, the period of major naval battles was over and the Romans possessed unchallenged naval supremacy in the North Sea, Atlantic coasts, Mediterranean, Red Sea, and the Black Sea until the emergence of new naval threats in the form of the Franks and the Saxons in the North Sea, and in the form of Borani, Herules and Goths in the Black Sea.


title: History of Italy

text: In 27 BC, Octavian was the sole Roman leader. His leadership brought the zenith of the Roman civilization, that lasted for four decades. In that year, he took the name "Augustus". That event is usually taken by historians as the beginning of Roman Empire. Officially, the government was republican, but Augustus assumed absolute powers. The Senate granted Octavian a unique grade of Proconsular "imperium", which gave him authority over all Proconsuls (military governors).


title: History of Italy

text: The unruly provinces at the borders, where the vast majority of the legions were stationed, were under the control of Augustus. These provinces were classified as imperial provinces. The peaceful senatorial provinces were under the control of the Senate. The Roman legions, which had reached an unprecedented number (around 50) because of the civil wars, were reduced to 28.


title: History of Italy

text: As provinces were being established throughout the Mediterranean, Roman Italy maintained a special status which made it ("ruler of the provinces", the latter being all the remaining territories outside Italy), and - especially in relation to the first centuries of imperial stability - ("governor of the world") and ("parent of all lands"). Such a status meant that, within Italy in times of peace, Roman magistrates exercised the (police power) as an alternative to the (military power). Italy's inhabitants had Latin Rights as well as religious and financial privileges.


title: History of Italy

text: Under Augustus's rule, Roman literature grew steadily in the Golden Age of Latin Literature. Poets like Vergil, Horace, Ovid and Rufus developed a rich literature, and were close friends of Augustus. Along with Maecenas, he stimulated patriotic poems, as Vergil's epic "Aeneid" and also historiographical works, like those of Livy. The works of this literary age lasted through Roman times, and are classics. Augustus also continued the shifts on the calendar promoted by Caesar, and the month of August is named after him. Augustus' enlightened rule resulted in a 200 years long peaceful and thriving era for the Empire, known as "Pax Romana".


title: History of Italy

text: Despite its military strength, the Empire made few efforts to expand its already vast extent; the most notable being the conquest of Britain, begun by emperor Claudius (47), and emperor Trajan's conquest of Dacia (101–102, 105–106). In the 1st and 2nd century, Roman legions were also employed in intermittent warfare with the Germanic tribes to the north and the Parthian Empire to the east. Meanwhile, armed insurrections (e.g. the Hebraic insurrection in Judea) (70) and brief civil wars (e.g. in 68 AD the year of the four emperors) demanded the legions' attention on several occasions. The seventy years of Jewish–Roman wars in the second half of the 1st century and the first half of the 2nd century were exceptional in their duration and violence. An estimated 1,356,460 Jews were killed as a result of the First Jewish Revolt; the Second Jewish Revolt (115–117) led to the death of more than 200,000 Jews; and the Third Jewish Revolt (132–136) resulted in the death of 580,000 Jewish soldiers. The Jewish people never recovered until the creation of the state of Israel in 1948.


title: History of Italy

text: After the death of Emperor Theodosius I (395), the Empire was divided into an Eastern and a Western Roman Empire. The Western part faced increasing economic and political crisis and frequent barbarian invasions, so the capital was moved from Mediolanum to Ravenna. In 476, the last Western Emperor Romulus Augustulus was deposed by Odoacer; for a few years Italy stayed united under the rule of Odoacer, only to be overthrown by the Ostrogoths, who in turn were overthrown by Roman emperor Justinian. Not long after the Lombards invaded the peninsula, and Italy did not reunite under a single ruler until thirteen centuries later.


title: History of Italy

text: Odoacer's rule came to an end when the Ostrogoths, under the leadership of Theodoric, conquered Italy. Decades later, the armies of Eastern Emperor Justinian entered Italy with the goal of re-establishing imperial Roman rule, which led to the Gothic War that devastated the whole country with famine and epidemics. This ultimately allowed another Germanic tribe, the Lombards, to take control over vast regions of Italy. In 751 the Lombards seized Ravenna, ending Byzantine rule in northern Italy. Facing a new Lombard offensive, the Papacy appealed to the Franks for aid.


title: History of Italy

text: In 756 Frankish forces defeated the Lombards and gave the Papacy legal authority over much of central Italy, thus establishing the Papal States. In 800, Charlemagne was crowned emperor of the Holy Roman Empire by the Pope in Saint Peter's Basilica. After the death of Charlemagne (814), the new empire soon disintegrated under his weak successors. There was a power vacuum in Italy as a result of this.


title: History of Italy

text: This coincided with the rise of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa and the Middle East. In the South, there were attacks from the Umayyad Caliphate and the Abbasid Caliphate. In the North, there was a rising power of communes. In 852, the Saracens took Bari and founded an emirate there. Islamic rule over Sicily was effective from 902, and the complete rule of the island lasted from 965 until 1061. The turn of the millennium brought about a period of renewed autonomy in Italian history. In the 11th century, trade slowly recovered as the cities started to grow again. The Papacy regained its authority and undertook a long struggle against the Holy Roman Empire.


title: History of Italy

text: The Investiture controversy, a conflict over two radically different views of whether secular authorities such as kings, counts, or dukes, had any legitimate role in appointments to ecclesiastical offices such as bishoprics, was finally resolved by the Concordat of Worms in 1122, although problems continued in many areas of Europe until the end of the medieval era. In the north, a Lombard League of communes launched a successful effort to win autonomy from the Holy Roman Empire, defeating Emperor Frederick Barbarossa at the Battle of Legnano in 1176. In the south, the Normans occupied the Lombard and Byzantine possessions, ending the six-century-old presence of both powers in the peninsula.


title: History of Italy

text: The few independent city-states were also subdued. During the same period, the Normans also ended Muslim rule in Sicily. In 1130, Roger II of Sicily began his rule of the Norman Kingdom of Sicily. Roger II was the first King of Sicily and had succeeded in uniting all the Norman conquests in Southern Italy into one kingdom with a strong centralized government. In 1155, Emperor Manuel Komnenos attempted to regain Southern Italy from the Normans, but the attempt failed and in 1158 the Byzantines left Italy. The Norman Kingdom of Sicily lasted until 1194 when Sicily was claimed by the German Hohenstaufen Dynasty. The Kingdom of Sicily would last under various dynasties until the 19th century.


title: History of Italy

text: Between the 12th and 13th centuries, Italy developed a peculiar political pattern, significantly different from feudal Europe north of the Alps. As no dominant powers emerged as they did in other parts of Europe, the oligarchic city-state became the prevalent form of government. Keeping both direct Church control and Imperial power at arm's length, the many independent city states prospered through commerce, based on early capitalist principles ultimately creating the conditions for the artistic and intellectual changes produced by the Renaissance.


title: History of Italy

text: Italian towns had appeared to have exited from Feudalism so that their society was based on merchants and commerce. Even northern cities and states were also notable for their merchant republics, especially the Republic of Venice. Compared to feudal and absolute monarchies, the Italian independent communes and merchant republics enjoyed relative political freedom that boosted scientific and artistic advancement.


title: History of Italy

text: During this period, many Italian cities developed republican forms of government, such as the republics of Florence, Lucca, Genoa, Venice and Siena. During the 13th and 14th centuries these cities grew to become major financial and commercial centers at European level.


title: History of Italy

text: Thanks to their favourable position between East and West, Italian cities such as Venice became international trading and banking hubs and intellectual crossroads. Milan, Florence and Venice, as well as several other Italian city-states, played a crucial innovative role in financial development, devising the main instruments and practices of banking and the emergence of new forms of social and economic organization.


title: History of Italy

text: During the same period, Italy saw the rise of the Maritime Republics: Venice, Genoa, Pisa, Amalfi, Ragusa, Ancona, Gaeta and the little Noli. From the 10th to the 13th centuries these cities built fleets of ships both for their own protection and to support extensive trade networks across the Mediterranean, leading to an essential role in the Crusades. The maritime republics, especially Venice and Genoa, soon became Europe's main gateways to trade with the East, establishing colonies as far as the Black Sea and often controlling most of the trade with the Byzantine Empire and the Islamic Mediterranean world. The county of Savoy expanded its territory into the peninsula in the late Middle Ages, while Florence developed into a highly organized commercial and financial city-state, becoming for many centuries the European capital of silk, wool, banking and jewellery.


title: History of Italy

text: Italy was the main center of the Renaissance, whose flourishing of the arts, architecture, literature, science, historiography, and political theory influenced all of Europe.