Despite continuous wars or imperial expansion on the Empire's frontiers and one year-long civil war over the imperial succession, the Mediterranean world remained at peace for more than two centuries.

Despite swimming being a part of imperial education, Caligula could not swim.

Despite initially holding an ambiguous neutrality, Clement was later forced to name Charles, Archduke of Austria, as King of Spain, since the imperial army had conquered much of northern Italy and was threatening Rome itself ( January 1709 ).

Despite the glorious end of the expedition, it is argued by modern scholars that Manuel finally achieved much less than he hoped in terms of imperial restoration.

Despite his own religious views and his friendship with the Emperor Julian, called " the Apostate " for attempting to restore the traditional religions of the empire, Libanius cultivated long-lasting friendships with Christians, both as private individuals and as imperial officials.

Despite the expense of the military and diplomatic campaign that brought Taiwan into the imperial realm, the general sentiment in Beijing was ambivalent.

Despite the rumors, the imperial family's association with Rasputin continued until Rasputin was murdered in 1916.

Despite holding the imperial throne, Charles ' real authority was limited by the German princes.

Despite his personal austerity, John had a high conception of the imperial role and would appear in full ceremonial splendour when this was advantageous.

Despite the rumors, the imperial family's association with Rasputin continued until his murder on December 17, 1916.

Despite the prominence of the themes, it was some time before they became the basic unit of the imperial administrative system.

* Despite its literal meaning, unlike many other titles meaning Great King, neither Maharaja nor Rajadhiraja (' King of Kings '), nor even its equivalent amongst Maharajas, ' Maharajadhiraja ', ever reached the standing required for imperial rank, as each was soon the object of title inflation.

Despite the decline of the Taika-Taihō reforms, imperial government was vigorous during the early Heian period.

Despite their usurpation of imperial authority, the Fujiwara presided over a period of cultural and artistic flowering at the imperial court and among the aristocracy.

Despite Alexios ' grand promises, Isaac, the more experienced and practical of the two, knew that the Crusaders ' debt could never be repaid from the imperial treasury.

Despite the metric measurements given, many scaffolders measure tubes and boards in imperial units, with tubes from 21 feet down and boards from 13 ft down.

Despite the temporary setback, the moves against the ever-weakening Roman masters resulted in Emperor Julian buying peace in 358 by handing over Toxandria to the Salians who then became Roman allies and provided troops for the imperial army.

Despite the premature call and an inevitable lack of co-ordination, tens of thousands of men rose in rebellion, government offices were plundered and destroyed and the imperial armies were immediately forced onto the defensive.

Despite all of this, according to Jeffrey Richards, Pope Gregory persisted in his efforts to preserve imperial rule in Italy.

Despite these troubles the Russian Bolsheviks were eventually successful in overthrowing the imperial government but only after countless cases of them being exiled, imprisoned and executed.

Despite suggestions by eunuchs to have her only buried as an imperial consort and not be honored as Emperor Huan's wife, Emperor Ling had her buried with honors due an empress dowager, with Emperor Huan.

Despite the fact that Theophilus was an iconoclast, Theodora held fast to the veneration of icons which she kept in her chambers in the imperial palace.

Despite some claims that shotgun sequencing was in some ways less accurate than the clone-by-clone method chosen by the Human Genome Project, the technique became widely accepted by the scientific community and is still the de facto standard used today.

Despite this, a museum exhibit opened in his honor, in which its owner claims it to be the country's smallest Presidential Library.

Despite this, the strong claims made by the doctrine of human rights continue to provoke considerable skepticism and debates about the content, nature and justifications of human rights to this day.

Despite the abolition of the German monarchy in 1918, the House of Hohenzollern never relinquished their claims to the thrones of Prussia and the German Empire.

Despite these claims he nominated people active under Nazi Germany to top ministerial positions, including Hans Globke, Director of the Federal Chancellory of West Germany between 1953 and 1963 and one of the closest aides to Chancellor Konrad Adenauer.

Despite some claims that the word kiosk originally came from the Swahili language, all evidence points to a Middle Persian origin.

Despite estimates of some 100 million AK-47 assault rifles circulating, General Kalashnikov claims he has not profited and that he only receives a state pension.

Despite Macdonald's claims that he was innocent, evidence came to light showing receipts of money from Allan to Macdonald and some of his political colleagues.

Despite the claims of many classical theorists and sociologists immediately after World War II, many contemporary theorists have critiqued secularisation thesis, arguing that religion has continued to play a vital role in the lives of individuals worldwide.

Despite ideological differences and holding territorial claims on the Soviet Union, Adolf Hitler admired Stalin and his politics and believed that Stalin was in effect transforming Soviet Bolshevism into a form of Nazism.

Despite marketing claims and popular misconceptions, the Florida resort is not located within Orlando city limits and is actually located about southwest of downtown Orlando within southwestern Orange County, with the remainder in adjacent Osceola County.

Despite claims that boar bristles have been used in the manufacture of premium dart boards for use with steel-tipped darts, these boards are, in fact, made of other materials and fibres — the finest ones from sisal rope.

Despite Homer's fame, Castellaneta claims he is rarely recognized in public, " except, maybe, by a die-hard fan.

Despite the repeated French claims, the French government let the matter subside.

Despite popular claims that LeMay advanced the notion of preventive nuclear war, the historical record indicates LeMay actually advocated justified preemptive nuclear war.

Despite Flynn's claims, the evidence indicates that he was not descended from any of the Bounty mutineers.

Despite the fact that Cyprus and Jerusalem did not bar succession in female line, Philip however took those claims and used those titles as well.

Despite the band's claims that their fall tour would be celebrating the 20th anniversary of Core, this did not happen.

Despite the exclusively female, aristocratic connections of her winter festival at Rome and her high status as a protecting deity of the Roman state, elite dedications to Bona Dea are far outnumbered by the personal dedications of the Roman plebs, particularly the ingenui ; the greatest number of all are from freedmen and slaves ; and an estimated one-third of all dedications are from men, one of whom, a provincial Greek, claims to be a priest of her cult.

Despite voluminous reader mail pointing to the numerous errors in the news story, the Observer never issued a full retraction of its claims, only going so far as to clarify that Johan Helsingius had " consistently denied " the claims of child pornography distribution.

Despite the vast number of Green Lanterns, certain sectors of space apparently do not recognize the authority of the Corps, as alien superhero Icon claims that his status as a citizen of the interstellar civilization known as the Cooperative makes him immune to prosecution from Guardians or their agents.

Despite these claims, no pheromonal substance has ever been demonstrated to directly influence human behavior in a peer reviewed study.

" Despite the well-known examples of pejorative exonymic characters ( such as the " dog radical " in Di ), he claims there is no hidden racial bias in the meanings of the characters used to describe these different peoples, but rather the differences were " in occupation or in custom, not in race or origin.