Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2021 March 1

Welcome to the Wikipedia Humanities Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is a transcluded archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

March 1

Nero

Who was the closest living male relative of Emperor Nero at the time of his death? 69.209.14.47 (talk) 03:31, 1 March 2021 (UTC)

His short-lived successor Galba was related through a path involving two marriages. He was the husband of Aemilia Lepida, who was a niece of Nero's uncle Drusus Caesar through the latter's marriage to another Aemilia Lepida. Among female relatives, we have Domitia Longina, the future empress, who was a niece (the daughter of half-brother Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo) of Caesonia, Nero's aunt through her marriage with Nero's uncle Caligula. Still a toddler at the time of Nero's death, she lived to an old age.  --Lambiam 13:33, 1 March 2021 (UTC)

The OP asked for male relatives. Clarityfiend (talk) 05:37, 2 March 2021 (UTC)

I first tried to answer for the closest male relative, for which my search produced, as I wrote, Galba (who by all accounts was male), but only related by marriages, and even separated by several such. A relative may be connected by blood, marriage, or adoption, but one has to draw the line somewhere or else everyone is a relative. The lack of male relatives led me to search for any relatives, which still did not turn up blood relatives.  --Lambiam 09:30, 2 March 2021 (UTC)

The answer seems to be "he didn't have any", since even Galba was only connected by marriage. Our article on Galba says, "Galba was not related to any of the emperors of the Julio-Claudian dynasty". —Mahāgaja · talk 07:54, 2 March 2021 (UTC)

The Julio-Claudians died out with Nero, as far as I know. They were pretty bad about keeping their children alive (assassination was a common political tool of the age). If you go back far enough, you may find a fifth- or sixth cousin from where the most recent common ancestor is from before Julius Caesar, but we also may not have the historical records to verify any of that. --Jayron32 12:43, 2 March 2021 (UTC)

Here's a first cousin. Nero's father Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus had a sister Domitia Lepida the Elder who had a son Junius Blaesus who was "governor of Gallia Lugdunensis in AD 69, a supporter of the emperor Vitellius, who had Blaesus poisoned." This makes Junius Blaesus first cousin to Nero, and he outlasted Nero by a year or so. He was also a great-grandnephew of Augustus through Augustus's sister Octavia the Younger. Junius Blaesus was therefore a blood relative of the Julio-Claudians (not only Nero), although he wasn't one of them. --Amble (talk) 18:34, 2 March 2021 (UTC)

Yes, I wasn’t looking specifically for a member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty just a distant cousin. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.209.14.47 (talk) 05:38, 3 March 2021 (UTC)

Then Junius Blaesus is the one. (And he seems to be the only one!) —Amble (talk) 15:19, 3 March 2021 (UTC)

There's a nice section Julio-Claudian_dynasty#Survival_after_the_fall_of_Nero describing the last known direct descendants of Augustus, who are also related to Nero if a little more distantly. None of the male relatives listed there were living at the time of Nero's death. They were born much later, so they don't meet the terms of the original question. --Amble (talk) 19:15, 3 March 2021 (UTC)

Are there any anti-ISIS or anti-jihad nasheeds?

Thanks. Apokrif (talk) 12:37, 1 March 2021 (UTC)

There's "Qalu innaha", for example (lyrics included). Although ISIS isn't explicitly mentioned in the lyrics, it's effectively anti-ISIL. Brandmeister^talk 21:39, 2 March 2021 (UTC)

As flagged before there is definitely anti-IS nasheeds. But using the term 'anti-jihad' is more complicated. I presume Apokrif refers to the term 'jihad' in the Western media sense of the word. There would certainly not be any nasheed against jihad in the Islamic sense of the term. --Soman (talk) 19:16, 3 March 2021 (UTC)

"I presume Apokrif refers to the term 'jihad' in the Western media sense of the word": I do. Apokrif (talk) 14:33, 4 March 2021 (UTC)

Jennifer Granholm

Our article on Jennifer Granholm says she "was seen as one of Biden’s least controversial nominees", and yet her Senate confirmation vote had more opposition than any member of the Biden cabinet so far other than Mayorkas. If she's so uncontroversial, why did so many Republicans who had supported other cabinet nominees oppose her? —Mahāgaja · talk 19:33, 1 March 2021 (UTC)

It's possible that they didn't object to her more, but are simply feeling more empowered to object to anyone than they were earlier. --Khajidha (talk) 20:44, 1 March 2021 (UTC)

I'd complain at the WSJ article from which that entire sentence is copied, almost verbatim. 69.174.144.79 (talk) 08:58, 2 March 2021 (UTC)

I agree with Khajidha that the opposition may be more a matter of general obstruction than of issues with the specific nominee. Our article has three uses of the construction "[she] was seen as ..."; while cited in two of the uses, it still leaves me wondering, seen as such by whom? The uncited use tells use that she "was seen by many as a 'fresh face'", where the attribution is not helpful.  --Lambiam 09:19, 2 March 2021 (UTC)

OK, I suppose so. Still, I can't help but notice that only 2 days before, Tom Vilsack was approved by a vote of 92–7, so it seems a little odd that this mindset of "general obstruction" arose within those 2 days. I also notice with some surprise that one of the 7 senators who voted against Vilsack was Bernie Sanders, who is otherwise hardly likely to be obstructionist against Biden's selections. I wonder what he has against Vilsack. And to make myself clear: I'm not really asking for idle speculation either as to the general opposition to Granholm nor Sanders's opposition to Vilsack. In both cases I'm really wondering whether these questions have been raised and/or answered by the U.S. media (I haven't lived in America in over 20 years and am sort of out of the loop when it comes to national politics.) —Mahāgaja · talk 16:52, 2 March 2021 (UTC)

Sanders made it clear he wanted someone for the job who was prepared to be tougher on big agriculture and protect small farmers. Vilsack was a lobbyist for corporate agriculture, and as such more aligned with the Republican platform than with the progressive agenda.  --Lambiam 15:46, 3 March 2021 (UTC)

OK, thanks for that explanation! —Mahāgaja · talk 12:14, 4 March 2021 (UTC)