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Gávdhos

(Encyclopedia)Gávdhos kôˈdə [key], small Mediterranean island, S Greece, near Crete. In the Acts of the Apostles it was the refuge of St. Paul's ship during the tempest. ...

Iguvine Tables

(Encyclopedia)Iguvine Tables ĭˈgyo͝ovĭn [key], several inscribed bronze tablets dating from the 1st and 2d cent. a.d., discovered in 1444 at Gubbio, Italy (the ancient Iguvium and later Eugubium). Most of them ...

Rojas, Fernando de

(Encyclopedia)Rojas, Fernando de fārnänˈdō ᵺā rōˈhäs [key], 1465?–1541?, Spanish writer. Scanty records show him to have practiced law at Salamanca. He wrote La Celestina, published anonymously in 1499....

Patara

(Encyclopedia)Patara pătˈərə [key], ancient Mediterranean port of Lycia, S Asia Minor (now Turkey). It was a Dorian colony, and became the seat of the Lycian League (167 b.c.–a.d. 43). According to the Acts o...

Bereans

(Encyclopedia)Bereans or Beroeans both: bərēˈənz [key], members of a Protestant religious sect founded in Scotland by John Barclay c.1773. They took their name from the community mentioned in Acts 17.10–13. T...

hostage

(Encyclopedia)hostage, person held by another as a guarantee that certain actions or promises will or will not be carried out. During periods of internal turmoil, insurgents often seize hostages; recent examples in...

sedition

(Encyclopedia)sedition sĭdĭˈshən [key], in law, acts or words tending to upset the authority of a government. The scope of the offense was broad in early common law, which even permitted prosecution for a remar...

Lycaonia

(Encyclopedia)Lycaonia lĭkˌāōˈnēə [key], ancient country of S Asia Minor (now in Turkey), between Galatia and Cilicia on the north and south and Phrygia and Cappadocia on the west and east. Passing successiv...

Hume, Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Hume, Joseph, 1777–1855, English politician and reformer. Although a Tory in early life, he sat in Parliament from 1818 to 1855 (with only one interruption) as an indefatigable Radical. Hume was a l...

Dilke, Sir Charles Wentworth

(Encyclopedia)Dilke, Sir Charles Wentworth dĭlk [key], 1843–1911, British statesman. A radical leader in the Liberal party, he helped pass the parliamentary Reform Acts of 1884–85 as well as laws giving the mu...