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This chapter examines how Renaissance scholars and artists were taken with Alexander, and were not altogether dependent on the Romances. For instance, the thirteenth-century Catholic saint Albertus Magnus somehow knew of Alexander's discovery of the caladrius, a white bird that could foretell the future and whether the sick would survive. In the mid-fifteenth century, the Portuguese Vasco da Lucena translated Quintus Curtius' Deeds of Alexander. Moreover, the Renaissance artists had behind them a rich tradition of mediaeval illustration of Alexander, but they had their own preferences, for artistic or sometimes political purposes, and some episodes proved to be especially favoured. These include attempts to depict whole stories as a sequence of scenes as well as in the well-known episodes.

This chapter discusses how the form of Valerius' Memorable Words and Deeds was aimed at providing the audience with moral guidance in as convenient a manner as possible. Materials were arranged into thematically titled chapters to ensure accessibility. The theme of brevity also recurs throughout the work as part of the author's technique of limiting his material to the most effective examples in order to put across his message briefly and effectively without boring the reader.

Very little is known about the New Territories before 1899. It was with the foundation of the Great City of Hong Kong in 1841 that the villagers found themselves close to an urban centre. From 1899, the New Territories started to become a suburban area, and today, it's part of the great metropolis. The Customary Land Law tells us how the villagers lived, settled disputes, controlled land and its alienation without any formal legal structure. It was conducted orally and based on public opinion of the village. However, by 1950s, the Customary Land Law became part of history, as developers and outside purchasers started to buy up land. These outsiders are not willing to buy without the protection of land deeds under the Hong Kong legal system. As such, the land in the New Territories is valued like a commodity like any other.

This chapter looks at how Mr. Deeds Goes to Town remakes Platinum Blonde, to decisive effect for the account of Capra's sense of his medium, and at how Mr. Smith Goes to Washington in turn remakes Mr. Deeds, with an unprecedented focus on the issue of “film power” and his own wielding of it. It analyzes how Capra's relation to the film medium in these films and Meet John Doe is astutely registered in Preston Sturges' Sullivan's Travels (1941). It concludes by examining the multiply recursive aspects of It's a Wonderful Life.

This chapter explains the role of Charlemagne in Hohenstaufen Roman renovatio, the period during which propagandists for the emperor employed a variety of expressions of his universal authority. Specifically, it studies four specific works: Deeds of Frederick Barbarossa, Play of Antichrist, Hillin of Trier letters, and the letter of Prester John. These works address the Hohenstaufen inheritance of the Roman Empire. They reveal how the discourse of dominium mundi continued to be constructed, as it had been for centuries, based on the sometimes awkward melding of the classical ideal of peaceful surrender and the violent end time scenario described in the sibylline tradition.

This Prologue opens at Caskoak, or Casco Bay, in Wabanaki territory, as English and French explorers, merchants, and settlers are entering Native space. This brief opening offers a unique view of a seemingly familiar scene, by showing a snapshot of the encounter between the English explorer Christopher Levett and the Wabanaki “Queen” of Casco Bay. This brief chapter introduces Native American women leaders and their relationships to diplomacy, agriculture, and early deeds.

The imitation of examples from literature was part of the moral education of the Roman aristocrat even before the advent of Greek influence. This chapter discusses The Education of an Orator, written by Quintilian in the late first century ad, which shows how these influences were reflected in the practice of formal Roman education. It highlights the importance of Quintilian's work for the study of Valerius Maximus. Quintilian lays down guidelines for the moral education of a Roman orator or statesman, and Valerius's Memorable Words and Deeds identifies in every respect with his requirements.

This chapter examines the extent to which Hellenistic compilations were known at Rome and whether these literary forms were imitated in Latin. It considers the Memorable Words and Deeds of Valerius Maximus and the Stratagems of Frontinus, which combine features of the Hellenistic collections into a thematically arranged handbook of historical material apparently unknown in the Hellenistic era.

This chapter examines the moral purpose of Valerius' Memorable Words and Deeds. Most of his chapters are devoted to virtues, others to their practical exercise and to matters of moral ambiguity, but there are also those devoted to vices. The discussion covers instances where moral exhortation rather than moral guidance is needed; less clear-cut issues on which a reader might well require moral guidance; and chapters devoted to the subject of consolation.

This chapter examines Valerius' decision to use historical examples as the vehicle of his moral message in Memorable Words and Deeds. He selected his examples according to the criteria of authority, plausibility, and entertainment.

This chapter examines Valerius' selection of examples. It considers his sensitivity for what his audience would find credible, generally choosing historical examples that would be the most convincing and inspiring for his audience. It also discusses how fable represents a kind of anecdote which does not appear in the Memorable Words and Deeds, but is relevant both to Valerius' criteria of belief and to the kind of audience for which he was writing.

This chapter speculates on the intended audience of Valerius' Memorable Words and Deeds and how he expected the work to be communicated to that audience. It suggests that Memorable Words and Deeds was intended for private study by members of a social elite. The popularity of morally instructive works at dinner-parties, particularly historical works, and the evidence of Plutarch and Suetonius — who state that the narration of historical anecdotes was an important part of the entertainment — indicates that such gatherings are a probable context in which to envisage the communication of the Memorable Words and Deeds to its audience.

Many sales took place during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong 1941-1945. The surviving land deeds reflected a traditional society breaking down as people sold their trust property. These transactions sometimes happened without a middleman or a family council. The deeds written during this period contained odd grammar and did not state the reason of alienation: perhaps starvation and extreme poverty were so widespread that there was no reason to state it. Deeds also reflect the Japanese presence in the different territories. In the areas where the Japanese presence was thin, like Sai Kung, the deeds stated sale prices in Hong Kong dollars, and dated the transaction by the year of the Republic. In areas under heavier control of the Japanese, such as Lok Ma Chau and Lantau, the deeds stated prices in Military Yen and were dated by the Showa year.

According to customary land law, when someone wanted to sell his land, he must offer the right of first refusal to his nearest relatives, then other members of his clan before he could offer it to outsiders. Sales of inherited land can be seen as a breach of an informal trust and that selling to an outsider might upset the clan and the village community. Frauds and collusion were often checked by the village. The sale of the land among members of the clan was often conducted through an oral agreement, while selling to outsiders required a written deed. The deed often stated that immediate family members had been offered the land but had been unable to take up the offer. The deeds also show that the reason for the sale was either starvation or extreme poverty.

Deeds for temporary leases and mortgages seldom survived. Most of them were conducted through an oral agreement, and deeds were usually returned to the borrower to be destroyed so that the lender could not claim that there were any outstanding obligations once the debt was repaid. A loan that involved land as a collateral was often a private arrangement. Some borrowers worked on the mortgaged land and would give a percentage of their harvest to their lender as interest, and sometimes, a redeemable sale became absolute. The foreclosure of a mortgage was not legal under the Imperial Land Law, however, in practice, foreclosure was often possible. The whole village would witness the event like an absolute land sale, and redeemable sales were often worded similarly to an absolute sale. This lack of distinction made it easy for people to claim that a sale was redeemable or permanent at a later date.

This chapter details Capra’s financial success; his efforts to upgrade his image; his involvement in the reactionary politics of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; and his ability to respond emotionally to the plight of the poor and unemployed in Mr. Deeds.

This chapter details the story of two American smugglers—Chris Delance and Michael Deeds—who were unfortunate enough to be caught by the Khmer Rouge. For pot smugglers who regularly took their loads out into the Gulf of Thailand, capture by the Khmer Rouge meant certain death. Unlike the smugglers detained by the Vietnamese who were discussed in the previous chapter, Deeds and Delance did not survive their incarceration. In addition, this chapter also discusses the dangers of piracy in marijuana smuggling operations. By the late 1970s, pirates had posed enough of a threat that a handful of scammers had begun to arm themselves and fight back. Regardless of the risks, more and larger loads of Thai marijuana were finding their way to the West Coast of the United States because the rewards were so great.

This chapter explicates Vasco da Lucena's Deeds of Alexander the Great in terms of transgender translation, humanism, and periodization. In addition, it looks into how the copy of the book recorded vandalism, censorship, and theft. The heritage of periodization may have obfuscated the writing of the history of sexuality. Lucena's modification and translation of the gender of historical characters in the text open new pathways to transgender history and spaces of trans identification. Moreover, Lucena was influenced by philological humanism in his choice of sources and translation methods. The chapter explains how transgender history also changes traditional notions of periodization.