Roman Senator
Titus Varius Clemens (Titus Varius Clemens )

Those that reached for the top positions among the Roman elite also included some individuals from Celje. The estate of a senator was attainable to the very few members of the Noric aristocracy; yet Titus Varius Clemens, born in Celeia, reached it after a successful career in the military.
Titus Varius, born around 115, was raised by his family in martial spirit from his earliest days; thus, he was prepared for the military career ahead of him. In the course of his education, Clemens has proven his outstanding performance on at least three occasions which paved the way for his promotion.
His started his service in the army as the prefect of the 2nd Gaelic cohort around the year 135 AD; subsequently, he assumed, successively, the posts of the tribune of the XXX legion, Commander of the 2nd Pannonia Cavalry Division, Commander of support troops sent from Spain to Tingitan Mauretania, and commander of a double division of the British cavalry. In 177, he was mentioned as a member of the close ruling council. Under the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, Clemens was admitted to the Senate.
Eleven plaques or tablets in his honor have been discovered thus far; some of them are stored in Vienna. Most of them contain a record of his entire history. Numerous inscriptions dedicated to him have been found in other provinces and cities of the empire as well, such as Metz, Pannonia, and even Morocco.

"May my will be done!"
Count Herman II of Celje (1361? – 1435)

Towards the end of the Middle Ages, a noble dynasty from the Štajerska region emerged to become the most ambitious and prosperous among the nobility in the territory of present Slovenia in a relatively short period of a century and a half. Its name was carried across Central Europe. The dynasty of Sanneck (Žovnek), or the Counts of Celje as of 1341, showed a healthy ambition with every economic, military, or political move it made. Its apex is embodied in Herman II of Celje, a man with a vision to become the grand duke and to combine all Celje estates into an independent land of Celje. This would put him directly behind the king in the hierarchy of the time.
From 1392 forward, Herman headed the Celje dynasty by himself. He dexterously used the disputes within the Habsburg court and the struggle for power between the then leading Central European dynasties, the Luxemburg and Habsburg. As a Hungarian magnate, he became a member of the closest council of the Hungarian king, called the Chivalric Order of the Dragon.

In 1432, the Counts of Celje were promoted to princes of the Holy Roman Empire. The first attempt at obtaining the high title of the grand prince in 1430 was stopped by the Habsburg dynasty, preventing Herman II of Celje from ever seeing his house bearing such rank as he died on October 13th 1435. However, his son Frederick II and grandson Ulrich II were granted this honor a year later, on November 30th 1436 in Prague. On that same day, the princedom of Celje was founded.

Holy Roman Empress, German Queen, and Queen Consort of Bohemia Barbara of Celje (1394? – July 11th 1445)

Barbara was the youngest daughter of Herman II and Anna, Countess of Schaunberg. As with all of his children, Barbara's father Herman included her in his ambitions plan to promote the house of the Counts of Celje – although he could hardly had imagined that Barbara would be the one to rise all the way to the top as she married Emperor Sigismund of Luxemburg in 1405, becoming the Empress of the Holy Roman Empire.
The coronation with the German royal crown in Aachen (1414) and accompanying her husband at the Council of Constance (145) were the highlights of her marriage to Sigismund; these were followed by a breakup and the first (informal) divorce in 1419.
In the 1520s, she was engaged strongly in her political duties assumed after being granted vast lands in present-day Czech Republic and Slovakia (then Bohemia) by the Emperor; above all, she was preoccupied with the defense of these territories against the Hussites. The end of the Hussite Wars brought her back together with her husband and in 1437, she was crowned Queen of Bohemia.
In 1422, Sigismund had their daughter Elisabeth married to Albrecht II of Habsburg who supported Sigismund in the Hussite wars; by this marriage, Albrecht II was also granted inheritance of the throne of Holy Roman Empire.

BRIKCIJ PREPROST (Celje, first half of 15th century – Vienna, November 29th 1505)
SERVING EIGHT TERMS AS DEAN AND TWO TERMS AS CHANCELLOR OF THE SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF VIENNA

Briccius Preprost de Cilia (of Celje) enrolled in the Vienna University in 1457; between 1468 and 1485, he taught at the School of Arts. In 1485, Briccius became a dean with St. Stephen and in the winter semester of the same year, he became the dean of the School of Arts for the third time. In relation to this appointment, an interesting story is told by the rare historical sources.
At a meeting at the School of Theology in spring 1486, Briccius refused to testify against his fellow countryman medical doctor and priest of the Aquileian diocese, Georgius de Cillia (George of Celje), which nearly led to Briccius' excommunication. Georgius was charged of writing "scandalous, inappropriate, even heretical thoughts that motivate breach of public morale and suggest moral laxity". The College and the inquisitor had the controversial writings destroyed immediately.
After this unfortunate incident, Briccius went on to study at the University of Padua; however, the situation in Vienna seemed to have calmed down and in 1491, he returned the School of Theology – and what a return it was: the dean, following an order of the Emperor Frederick III, convened a meeting with a single item on the agenda – appointing Briccius as a full-tenure professor. However, a full-tenure professor was required to hold a title of doctor of theology, and Briccius was only a licentiate. Hence, the Emperor intervened once more and ordered the faculty to convene again in the beginning of 1492 in order to abolish this formality. Since then, Briccius worked as a professor until his death, serving eight times as dean and twice as the chancellor (1491/I and 1497/II).

TOMAŽ PRELOKAR (Celje ar. 1430- Constance, April 25th 1496)
EMPEROR'S TEACHER OF SLOVENE

"Thomas de Cilia" was the first humanist teacher of the future great supporter of Emperor Maximillian I; in such role, he made a considerable contribution to further development of humanism to the north of Alps. Most likely, he assumed this task simultaneously with admittance to the imperial office; he certainly held that position in 1471 when he left two of his manuscripts, kept today by the Austrian National Library, to 12-year old heir to the imperial throne. Being an experienced jurist and a skilled diplomat, Thomas later introduced the young heir to the state, administrative, and foreign policy affairs. It may be particularly interesting that Thomas of Cilia did not only teach his pupil Latin, but also Slovenian. Historic research has shown that among other languages, Emperor Maximillian could speak, although quite awkwardly, Slovenian.

JANEZ ŽIGA VALENTIN POPOVIČ (Arclin, February 9th 1705 – Perchtoldsdorf near Vienna, November 21st 1774)
THE PIONEER OF OCEANOGRAPHY

Janez Žiga Valentin Popovič was a remarkable man, a scholar that belongs to the top of the most universally educated and knowledgeable Slovenians of the 18th century.
Born on February 9th 1705, he was a son of a clerk from Arclin near Celje. He completed his studies in philosophy and theology in 1728 in Graz; however, he did not decide to pursue a career of a priest, choosing instead to take a three-year journey around Italy. Following this journey, he was a teacher in prominent noble families from the Štajerska region, teaching Slovenian among other subjects.
During his stay in Regensburg, he published his most extensive work called "Untersuchungen vom Meere", "Inquiries into the Sea" (1750) which brought him scholarly fame overnight. The book is actually a compilation of essays in natural science, linguistics, archeology, geography, and culture and politics – a compilation of confessions and scientific plans of one of the leading scholars in Austria at the time. Despite the versatility of his argument, his discussions on the sea are seen as the pioneering contribution to the development of oceanography.
In 1753, he assumed the post of the head of Department of German Language and Rhetoric at the University of Vienna, which had only been established four years earlier at the initiative of his great adversary, Johann Christoph Gottsched. Hence, Popovič, a Slovenian, also wrote the first German descriptive grammar book, adapted for the inherited sates of the Austrian Empire; following an initiative of the Empress Mary Theresa, je published in 1754 the "Essential Fundamentals of the Art of German Language for use in Austrian Schools"; the book was sold out immediately.

JOHANN GABRIEL SEIDL (Vienna, June 21st 1804 – Vienna, July 18th 1875)
AUTHOR OF THE AUSTRIAN NATIONAL ANTHEM 

Austrian belletrist, travel writer, archeologist, historian, ethnographer, and scholar Johann Gabriel Seidl was born in Vienna as the son of the attorney at the royal court and the court of law. During his studies in philosophy, he made numerous literary friendships, including one with Slovenia's greatest poet France Prešeren.
In 1851, he became a regular member of the Vienna Academy of Science; in 1856, he became the custodian of the royal treasure, and in 1867 he was awarded the title of a state councilor. In 1871, he retired and died four years later in Vienna.

He came to Celje as an accomplished writer, having previously published his poems and novels both in journals and yearbooks as well as in his own books of poetry and prose; he published his first work at an early age of 16. Many of his successful lyric works were set to music, and his lyrics were commissioned by Müller, Schubert, and Schumann for their musical works. In Celje, he carried on and further refined his literary work. He wrote in German as well as Latin, and he definitely spoke Slovenian. In his "Celje period", he lived in an environment ideally conducive to creative work: working as a teacher at a gymnasium in a town with beautiful scenery, having ample time to create, and living a pleasant family life with "dearest Theresa", his wife whom he had married just recently, and his mother. In 1853, he wrote his arguably most famous poem – today known as the lyrics to the Austrian national anthem titled "The Imperial Song" in Slovenian translation by Luka Jeran.

ALFRED NOBEL (1833 -1896)
VISITED HIS MISTRESS IN CELJE

Sophia Hess, a woman who left a deep mark in the life of the famous inventor Alfred Nobel, lived in Celje for a while in the 1870s. From 1876 when they met in Baden near Vienna, until his death in 1896, Nobel provided generous financial support for Sophia and left her an annual rent of 6,000 florins in his will. Sophia and Nobel came to Celje on several occasions to visit her sister Amalia. Her husband, Albert Brunner, director of the state galvanization (zinc-coating) plant, wrote to Nobel about various technological innovations and favorable investment opportunities. At his initiative, Nobel even intended to acquire the entire Fehleisen gunpowder mill.