Constantine the Great
 Flavius Valerius Constantinus

-Roman Emperor of Illyrian Origin-



Gaius Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus[1] (February 27, 272–May 22, 337), commonly known as Constantine I, Constantine the Great, or (among Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic[2] Christians) Saint Constantine, was a Roman Emperor, proclaimed Augustus by his troops on July 25, 306 and who ruled an ever-growing portion of the Roman Empire until his death.

Constantine is best remembered in modern times for the Edict of Milan in 313, which fully legalized Christianity in the Empire, for the first time, and the Council of Nicaea in 325; these actions are considered major factors in the spreading of the Christian religion. His reputation as the "first Christian Emperor" has been promulgated by historians from Lactantius and Eusebius of Caesarea to the present day; although there has been debate over the veracity of his faith because he was baptized only on his death bed.[3]

Early life
Bronze statue of Constantine I in York, England, near the spot where he was proclaimed Emperor in 306 Constantine was born at Naissus (modern Niš, Serbia, ancient Illyria) in the province of Moesia Superior on 27 February 272 or 273, to Roman general, Constantius Chlorus, and his first wife Helena, an innkeeper's daughter who at the time was only sixteen years old. His father left his mother around 292 to marry Flavia Maximiana Theodora, daughter or step-daughter of the Western Roman Emperor Maximian. Theodora would give birth to six half-siblings of Constantine, including Julius Constantius.

Young Constantine served at the court of Diocletian in Nicomedia, after the appointment of his father as one of the two caesares (junior emperors) of the Tetrarchy in 293. In 305, both augusti (senior emperors), Diocletian and Maximian, abdicated, and Constantius succeeded to Maximian's position of western augustus. Although two legitimate sons of emperors were available (Constantine and Maxentius, the son of Maximian), both of them were ignored in the transition of power. Instead, Severus and Maximinus Daia were made caesares. Constantine subsequently left Nicomedia to join his father in Roman Gaul. However, Constantius fell sick during an expedition against the Picts of Caledonia, and died on July 25, 306 in Eboracum (York). The general Chrocus, of Alamannic descent, and the troops loyal to Constantius' memory immediately proclaimed Constantine an augustus.

Under the Tetrarchy, Constantine's succession was of dubious legitimacy. While Constantius as senior emperor could "create" a new caesar, Constantine's (or, his troops') claim to the title of augustus ignored the system of succession established in 305. Accordingly, Constantine asked Galerius, the eastern augustus, to be recognized as heir to his father's throne. Galerius granted him the title of caesar, confirming Constantine's rule over his father's territories, and promoted Severus to augustus of the West.

Ruler of the West
Constantine's share of the empire comprised of Britain, Gaul, the Germanic provinces, and Spain. He therefore commanded one of the largest Roman armies, stationed along the important Rhine frontier. While Gaul was one of the richer regions of the empire, it had suffered much during the Crisis of the Third Century. Many areas were depopulated, the cities ruined. During his years in Gaul, from 306 to 316, Constantine continued his father's efforts to secure the Rhine frontier and rebuild the Gallic provinces. His main residence during that time was Trier.

Immediately after his promotion to emperor, Constantine abandoned his father's British campaign and returned to Gaul to quell an uprising by Franks. Another expedition against Frankish tribes followed in 308. After this victory, he began to build a bridge across the Rhine at Cologne to establish a permanent stronghold on the right bank of the river. A new campaign in 310 had to be abandoned because of Maximian's rebellion (below). The last of Constantine's wars on the Rhine frontier took place in 313, after his return from Italy, and saw him again victorious. Constantine's main goal was stability, and he tried to achieve that by immediate, often brutal punitive expeditions against rebellious tribes, demonstrating his military power by conquering the enemies on their own side of the Rhine frontier, and slaughtering many prisoners during games in the arena. The strategy proved successful, as the Rhine frontier remained relatively quiet during the rest of Constantine's reign.

In the interior conflicts of the Tetrarchy, Constantine tried to remain neutral. In 307, the senior emperor Maximian (recently returned to the political scene after his abdication in 305) visited Constantine to get his support in the war of Maxentius against Severus and Galerius. Constantine married Maximian's daughter Fausta to seal the alliance and was promoted to Augustus by Maximian. He didn't interfere on Maxentius' behalf, though. Maximian returned to Gaul in 308 after he had failed to depose his son. At the conference of Carnuntum, where Diocletian, Galerius and Maximian met later that year, Maximian was forced to abdicate again and Constantine reduced to caesar. In 309, Maximian rebelled against his son-in-law while Constantine was campaigning against the Franks. The rebellion was quickly quelled, and Maximian was killed or forced to commit suicide. Both Constantine and Maximinus Daia were disappointed over their relegation to caesar and Licinius' appointment, and subsequently defied that ruling and styled themselves Augustus, which was granted to them by Galerius in 310, thus officially creating four Augusti. With Galerius' death in 311, the last ruler with enough authority interested in continuing the tetrarchy left the stage, and the system rapidly declined. In the struggle for power that ensued, Constantine allied himself with Licinius, while Maximinus approached Maxentius, who was still officially regarded as an usurper.

312-324
Early in 312, Constantine crossed the Alps with his army and attacked Maxentius. He quickly conquered Northern Italy in the battles of Turin and Verona and then moved on to Rome. There he defeated Maxentius in the Battle of Milvian Bridge, which resulted in his becoming Western Augustus, or ruler of the entire Western Roman Empire. During the next years, he gradually consolidated his military superiority over his rivals in the crumbling Tetrarchy.

In 313, he met Licinius in Milan to secure their alliance by the marriage of Licinius and Constantine's half-sister Constantia. During this meeting, the emperors agreed on the so-called Edict of Milan, officially granting full tolerance to all religions in the empire, especially Christianity. The conference was cut short, however, when news reached Licinius that his rival Maximinus Daia had crossed the Bosporus and invaded Licinian territory. Licinius departed and eventually defeated Maximinus, gaining control over the entire eastern half of the Roman Empire. Relations between the two remaining emperors declined, though, and either in 314 or 316, Constantine and Licinius fought gainst one another in the war of Cibalae, with Constantine being victorious. They clashed again in the Battle of Campus Ardiensis in 317, and agreed to a settlement in which Constantine's sons Crispus and Constantine II, and Licinius' son Licinianus were made caesars.

In the year 320, Licinius reneged on the religious freedom promised by the Edict of Milan in 313 and began another persecution of the Christians. It became a challenge to Constantine in the west, climaxing in the great civil war of 324. Licinius, aided by Goth mercenaries, represented the past and the ancient faith of Paganism. Constantine and his Franks marched under the Christian standard of the labarum, and both sides saw the battle in religious terms. Supposedly outnumbered, but fired by their zeal, Constantine's army emerged victorious in the battles of Adrianople, the Hellespont, and at Chrysopolis. With the defeat and death of Licinius a year later (he was accused of plotting against Constantine and executed), Constantine then became the sole emperor of the entire Roman Empire.[4]

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Aleksander the Great






Sir William Woodthorpe Tarn, of the British Academy, regarded worldwide as having written the definitive work on Alexander the Great, states in the opening paragraph of his book Alexander the Great that "Alexander certainly had from his father (Philip II) and probably from his mother (Olymbia) Illyrian, i.e. Albanian, blood!"*

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Pope Clement XI
 Giovanni Francesco Albani

-Albanian Pope in the Vatican-




Pope Clement XI (July 23, 1649 – March 19, 1721), born Giovanni Francesco Albani, was Pope from 1700 to 1721. He was from an eminent family of Urbino that had estabilished itself there from northern Albania in the 15th century.

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Pavlos Kountouriotis

-First President of Greece-



Admiral Pavlos Kountouriotis (1855-1935) (Greek: Παύλος Κουντουριώτης) was a Greek naval hero of Arvanite origin, and twice President of Greece.

Pavlos Kountouriotis was a member of the historical Kountouriotis family which originated from the island of Hydra, Saronic Islands; many members of the family took part in the Greek War of Independence. The original family name was Zervas but was changed to Kountouriotis, since one of their ancestors lived for a while in the village of Kountoura, Megarida.

He joined the navy in 1875, being promoted to Rear Admiral in 1912, on the outbreak of the First Balkan War. During the Balkan Wars, he led the Greek Navy scoring major victories against the Turkish fleet in December, 1912 (Battle of Elli) and in January 1913 (Battle of Limnos), liberating most of the Aegean islands. His victories, due in largë part to his daring but successful tactics, earned him the status of a national hero.

In 1916, he became a ministër in the Stephanos Skouloudis government, but, in disagreement with the pro-German feelings of King Constantine I of Greece, he followed Eleftherios Venizelos to Thessaloniki were he was assigned the ministry of Naval Affairs in Venizelos' National Defence government. He subsequently retired from the navy, and when King Alexander I of Greece died in 1920, he became Regent of Greece until the elections that took place in November 1920 and brought King Constantine back.

In March 1924, after King George II of Greece was deposed, he was elected as the first President of the Second Hellenic Republic, but resigned the post in March, 1926 in opposition to General Pangalos' dictatorship. He was reelected president in May 1929, but due to serious health complications he resigned in December of the same year. He died in 1935.

Α World War II Greek destroyer and a Standard-class frigate, the F 462 Kountouriotis, are named after him.

Muhammad Ali Pasha

-Builder of Modern Egypt-



...and all the Farouk dynasty.


The Mosque of Muhammad Ali in Cairo, Egypt.


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Mustafa Kemal Ataturk

-The Father of the Modern Turkish Nation-



TIME Magazine, October 12, 1953, p. 67:

Turkey

...By conventional standards, Kemal Ataturk was hardly an admirable character. He was a bitter, sullen and ruthless man, a two-fisted drinker and a rake given to shameless debauch. Politically, though he proclaimed a Bill of Rights, he flouted it constantly; though he talked of loyalty, he hanged his closest friends. He was devoid of sentiment and incapable of love, unfaithful to everyone and every cause he adopted save one-- Turkey. But before he died, his driven, grateful people thrust on him the last and greatest of his five names: Ataturk, Father of All the Turks.
The Father of All the Turks (who left no legitimate heirs) was born in 1881 in Salonika, then part of the Ottoman Empire, of a mild Albanian father and a forceful Macedonian mother. Mustafa was a rebel from the start. His pious Mohammedan mother urged him to become a holy man, but he became a soldier; at 22, a captain, he rebelled against the Sultan and was nearly executed; at 27, he joined the Young Turks rebellion, then rebelled against the Young Turks. The army, fearful of him, shunted him from post to post, but could neither shake him nor subdue him. At Gallipoli, in 1915, he defeated the British; in the Caucasus, he checked the Russians; in Berlin, 1918, he drunkenly needled the high panjandrum of his allies, Field Marshal von Hindedburg; in Arabia, 1918, he held off T. E. Lawrence's Bedouin hordes. At 38, he çame out of the crash of the Ottoman Empire the only Turkish commander untouched by defeat.

Diocletian
 Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus

-Roman Emperor of Illyrian Origin-



Diocletian, Roman emperor 284-305 AD, is said to have been born at Dioclea, near Salona, in Dalmatia. His original name was Diocles. Of humble Illyrian origin, he served with high distinction and held important military commands under the emperors Probus and Aurelian, and accompanied Carus to the Persian War. After the death of Numerian he was chosen emperor by the troops at Chalcedon, on the 17th of September 284, and slew with his own hands Arrius Aper, the praefect of the praetorians. He thus fulfilled the prediction of a druidess of Gaul, that he would mount a throne as soon as he had slain a wild boar (aper). Having been installed at Nicomedia, he received general acknowledgment after the murder of Carinus. In consequence of the rising of the Bagaudae in Gaul, and the threatening attitude of the German peoples on the Rhine, he appointed Maximian Augustus in 286; and, in view of further dangers and disturbances in the empire, proclaimed Constantius Chlorus and Galerius Caesars in 293. Each of the four rulers was placed at a separate capital -- Nicomedia, Mediolanum (Milan), Augusta Trevirorum (Trier), Sirmium. This amounted to an entirely new organization of the empire, on a plan commensurate with the work of government which it now had to carry on. At the age of fifty-nine, exhausted with labor, Diocletian abdicated his sovereignty on the 1st of May 305, and retired to Salona, where he died eight years afterwards (others give 316 as the year of his death). The end of his reign was memorable for the persecution of the Christians. In defense of this it may be urged that he hoped to strengthen the empire by reviving the old religion, and that the church as an independent state over whose inner life at least he possessed no influence, appeared to be a standing menace to his authority. Under Diocictian the senate became a political nonentity, the last traces of republican institutions disappeared, and were replaced by an absolute monarchy approaching to despotism. He wore the royal diadem, assumed the title of lord, and introduced a complicated system of ceremonial and etiquette, borrowed from the East, in order to surround the monarchy and its representative with mysterious sanctity. But at the same time he devoted his energies to the improvement of the administration of the empire; he reformed the standard of coinage, fixed the price of provisions and other necessaries of daily life, remitted the tax upon inheritances and manumissions, abolished various monopolies, repressed corruption and encouraged trade. In addition, he adorned the city with numerous buildings, such as the thermae, of which extensive remains are still standing.

Probus
Marcus Aurelius Probus

-Roman Emperor of Illyrian Origin-



Marcus Aurelius PROBUS (b. 232), an Illyrian, was saluted by the eastern armies (276). He repelled from Gaul the Franks and Alamanni and other peoples, who had inflicted great devastation. He also strengthened the Danube frontier, quieted Asia Minor, and suppressed pretenders in Gaul. When the praetorian prefect Carus was proclaimed emperor by the troops in Raetia, Probus was murdered in Pannonia.