Julius Caesar in Medieval France: The Textual Sources and Iconography of the Faits des Romains

The Julius Caesar of Shakespeare\u27s day was a figure who believed that fame transcended mortality. Long after Caesar the man was dead, Caesar the legend lived on. It was a legend which in many ways was an analogue of the man. The legend maintained all of Caesar\u27s stubborn persistence, and to some extent his power, his influence, and his ability to provoke controversy. This legend was borne across the Middle Ages by a mere handful of literary manuscripts. Just as the historical Caesar had survived the many pitfalls of his career, these manuscripts somehow escaped the numerous fates that could have retarded or prevented their transmission in medieval Europe. What was a handful of manuscripts in the ninth century grew both in numbers and in varieties of expression until by the thirteenth century the legend of Caesar experienced something of a metamorphosis, a fundamental change which assured Caesar\u27s popularity for another three centuries. Caesar\u27s transformation in the thirteenth century was precipitated by an anonymous text called the Faits des Romains. The author of this text redefined the Latin literary tradition of Caesar in entirely new and different terms. Before the Faits des Romains, Caesar was known principally through the writings of Sallust and Lucan, both of which were used as texts in the schools. Not only was close familiarity with Caesar confined to the formally educated, but his image was defined almost exclusively by these two texts . Because neither of these works is devoted exclusively to Caesar and because each covers a relatively short period of Caesar\u27s life, his legend in the Latin tradition was at best sketchy. The author of the Faits des Romains extended the acquaintance with Caesar beyond the limits of Latin education. Not only did he compile virtually every source of Caesar\u27s legend, he also translated his sources into the French vernacular. The impact of his work was rapid and far-reaching

Julius Caesar in Medieval France: The Textual Sources and Iconography of the Faits des Romains

The Julius Caesar of Shakespeare\u27s day was a figure who believed that fame transcended mortality. Long after Caesar the man was dead, Caesar the legend lived on. It was a legend which in many ways was an analogue of the man. The legend maintained all of Caesar\u27s stubborn persistence, and to some extent his power, his influence, and his ability to provoke controversy. This legend was borne across the Middle Ages by a mere handful of literary manuscripts. Just as the historical Caesar had survived the many pitfalls of his career, these manuscripts somehow escaped the numerous fates that could have retarded or prevented their transmission in medieval Europe. What was a handful of manuscripts in the ninth century grew both in numbers and in varieties of expression until by the thirteenth century the legend of Caesar experienced something of a metamorphosis, a fundamental change which assured Caesar\u27s popularity for another three centuries. Caesar\u27s transformation in the thirteenth century was precipitated by an anonymous text called the Faits des Romains. The author of this text redefined the Latin literary tradition of Caesar in entirely new and different terms. Before the Faits des Romains, Caesar was known principally through the writings of Sallust and Lucan, both of which were used as texts in the schools. Not only was close familiarity with Caesar confined to the formally educated, but his image was defined almost exclusively by these two texts . Because neither of these works is devoted exclusively to Caesar and because each covers a relatively short period of Caesar\u27s life, his legend in the Latin tradition was at best sketchy. The author of the Faits des Romains extended the acquaintance with Caesar beyond the limits of Latin education. Not only did he compile virtually every source of Caesar\u27s legend, he also translated his sources into the French vernacular. The impact of his work was rapid and far-reaching

Effective Exchange Rate Classifications and Growth

We propose an econometric procedure for obtaining de facto exchange rate regime classifications which we apply to study the relationship between exchange rate regimes and economic growth. Our classification method models the de jure regimes as outcomes of a multinomial logit choice problem conditional on the volatility of a country's effective exchange rate, a bilateral exchange rate and international reserves. An `effective' de facto exchange rate regime classification is then obtained by assigning country-year observations to the regime with the highest predictive probability obtained from the estimation problem. An econometric investigation into the relationship between exchange rate regimes and GDP growth finds that growth is higher under stable currency-value regimes. Significant asymmetric effects on country growth from not doing what is said are found for nonindustrialized countries. Countries that exhibit `fear of floating' experience significantly higher growth.

Computational Efficiency: A Common Organizing Principle for Parallel Computer Maps and Brain Maps?

It is well-known that neural responses in particular brain regions are spatially organized, but no general principles have been developed that relate the structure of a brain map to the nature of the associated computation. On parallel computers, maps of a sort quite similar to brain maps arise when a computation is distributed across multiple processors. In this paper we will discuss the relationship between maps and computations on these computers and suggest how similar considerations might also apply to maps in the brain

An Economic Analysis of Carbon Sequestration for Wheat and Grain Sorghum Production in Kansas

This study examined the economic potential with and without carbon credit payments of two crop and tillage systems in South Central Kansas that could reduce carbon dioxide emissions and sequester carbon in the soil. Experiment station cropping practices, yield data, and soil carbon data for continuously cropped wheat and grain sorghum produced with conventional tillage and no-tillage from1986 to 1995 were used to determine soil carbon changes and to develop enterprise budgets to determine expected net returns for a typical dryland farm in South Central Kansas. No-till had lower net returns because of lower yields and higher overall costs. Both crops produced under no-till had higher annual soil C gains than under conventional tillage. Carbon credit payments may be critical to induce farm managers to use cropping practices, such as no-till, that sequester soil carbon. The carbon credit payments needed will be highly dependent on cropping system production costs, especially herbicide costs, which substitute for tillage as a means of weed control. The C values estimated in this study that would provide an incentive to adopt no-tillage range from $0 to$95.991ton/year, depending upon the assumption about herbicide costs. In addition, if producers were compensated for other environmental benefits associated with no-till, carbon credits could be reduced.carbon credit value, carbon sequestration, grain sorghum, no-tillage, wheat, Crop Production/Industries,

Derived Carbon Credit Values for Carbon Sequestration: Do CO2 Emissions From Production Inputs Matter?

Environmental Economics and Policy,

DERIVED CARBON CREDIT VALUES FOR CARBON SEQUESTRATION: DO CO2 EMISSIONS FROM PRODUCTION INPUTS MATTER ?

An economic analysis was conducted involving wheat and grain sorghum production systems that affect carbon dioxide emissions and sequester soil carbon. Parameters examined were expected net returns, changes in net carbon sequestered and the value of carbon credits necessary to equate net returns from systems that sequester more carbon to those that sequester less with and without adjustments for CO2 emissions from production inputs. Evaluations were based on experiment station cropping practices, yield, and soil carbon data for continuously cropped and rotated wheat and grain sorghum produced with conventional and no-tillage. No-till had lower net returns because of lower yields and higher overall costs. Both crops produced under no-till had higher annual soil C gains than under conventional tillage. However, no-till systems had higher total atmospheric emissions of C from production inputs. The differences were relatively small. The C values estimated in this study that would equate net returns of no-tillage to conventional tillage range from $7.82 to$58.69/ton/yr when C emissions from production inputs were subtracted from soil carbon sequestered and $7.79 to$54.99/ton/yr when atmospheric emissions were not considered.Environmental Economics and Policy,

Media and Development: The Dysfunctional Alliance

This essay looks at the dysfunctional relationship between overall international development assistance and more specific support to the media sector. While the international donor community sees the potential of independent media in developing countries to contribute to societies’ economic and social progress, international development policies rarely have a coherent, integrated approach to the media sector, and foreign assistance often fails to achieve its goal of helping countries create a sustainable, independent media that acts in the interests of society as a whole. Indeed, leaders of many countries have decided that media—and especially unfettered, independent media—is more likely to be an obstacle, at least to their political fortunes, than a support. The author proposes three ways that the international community could improve its work on media development and build stronger political commitment for independent media. First is strengthening country leadership and ownership of media development initiatives. This requires building local knowledge about the role of media in open societies and about how to manage a strong, independent media system. Second is integration of media development work within the broader development agenda, leveraging more of the $135 billion that donors spend annually on official development assistance. Third is improving data, diagnostics, and learning on the media sector, particularly in developing countries, and creating a better understanding of how countrylevel media sectors are evolving, and how they can be best supported

Methanotrophic Bacteria for Nutrient Removal from Wastewater: Attached Film System

It was hypothesized that nutrient removal from wastewater could be achieved by using methane oxidizing bacteria (methanotrophs). Because methane is inexpensive. it can be used as an energy source to encourage bacterial growth to assimilate nitrogen and phosphorus and other trace elements. This initial feasibility study used synthetic nutrient mixtures and secondary sewage effluent as feed to a laboratory-scale methanotrophic attached-film expanded bed (MAFEB) reactor operated at 35°C and 20°C. The MAFEB system operated successfully at low nutrient concentrations under a variety of nutrient-limited conditions. Using a synthetic nutrient mixture with a nitrogen:phosphorus feed ratio (w/w) of 9:1, phosphate concentrations were reduced from 1.3 mg P/ L to below 0.1 mg P/ L, and ammonia was reduced from 12 mg N/L to approximately 1 mg N/L on a continuous flow basis, with a bed hydraulic retention time of 4.8 hours. The average nutrient uptake rates from synthetic nutrient mixtures were 100 mg nitrogen and 10 mg phosphorus/L of expanded bed/d. Nutrient assimilation rates increased with increasing growth rate and with increasing temperature. Nitrogen/phosphorus uptake ratios varied from 8 to 13, and the observed yield varied from 0.11 to 0.16 g volatile solids (VS)/g chemical oxygen demand (COD). Nutrient removal from secondary sewage effluent was successfully demonstrated using sewage effluent from two local treatment plants. Nutrient concentrations of 10-15 mg N/L and 1.0-1.8 mg P/L were reduced consistently below 1 mg N/L and 0.1 mg P/L. No supplemental nutrients were added to the sewage to attain these removal efficiencies since the nutrient mass ratios were similar to that required by the methanotrophs. Removal rates were lower at 20°C than at 35°C, but high removal efficiencies were maintained at both temperatures. Effluent suspended solids concentrations ranged from 8 to 30 mg volatile suspended solids (VSS)/L, and the effluent soluble COD concentration averaged 30 mg/L