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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 April 2016
Elliptical galaxies are at first sight a remarkably homogenous class of objects, yet some of them produce large and enormously powerful radio sources while others remain more or less quiescent. Why should this be so? What prompts the nucleus of an elliptical galaxy to become ‘active’? What, if anything, do elliptical galaxies have in common with the bulges of spirals? Here, I review some of the radio and optical properties of nearby elliptical galaxies, with special emphasis on events which take place within the central kiloparsec.