Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

90 results found

Guérin, Pierre Narcisse, Baron

(Encyclopedia)Guérin, Pierre Narcisse, Baron gārăNˈ [key], 1774–1833, French painter. He won enthusiastic recognition in 1799 for his Marius Sextus (Louvre). A defender of the classicism of J. L. David, he b...

Chadwick, Sir James

(Encyclopedia)Chadwick, Sir James, 1891–1974, English physicist, grad. Manchester Univ., 1908. He worked at Manchester under Ernest Rutherford on radioactivity. He was assistant director of radioactive research i...

Mylae

(Encyclopedia)Mylae mīˈlē [key], ancient port, NE Sicily, now Milazzo. It was settled by colonists from Messina. Here in 260 b.c. the Romans in a newly built fleet were led to victory over the Carthaginians by t...

Hortensius, Quintus

(Encyclopedia)Hortensius, Quintus kwĭnˈtəs hôrtĕnˈshəs [key], 114 b.c.–50 b.c., Roman orator. He was the favorite lawyer of the patrician party and made his name as defense counsel in the bribery and embez...

Messalina

(Encyclopedia)Messalina (Valeria Messalina) mĕsəlīˈnə [key], d. a.d. 48, Roman empress, wife of Claudius I. She was the mother of his children, Britannicus and Octavia. Her reputation for greed and lust was su...

Hirtius, Aulus

(Encyclopedia)Hirtius, Aulus ôˈləs hûrˈshēəs [key], d. 43 b.c., Roman soldier. He was a friend of Julius Caesar, with whom he served in Gaul. After Caesar's assassination (44 b.c.) Hirtius and Caius Vibius P...

Flaminian Way

(Encyclopedia)Flaminian Way fləmĭnˈēən [key], one of the principal Roman roads, the greatest artery from Rome to Cisalpine Gaul. Construction was begun (220 b.c.) by Caius Flaminius. The road ran N from Rome t...

Maximin, d. 238, Roman emperor

(Encyclopedia)Maximin (Caius Julius Verus Maximinus) măkˈsĭmĭn [key], d. 238, Roman emperor (235–38). A rough Thracian soldier of great physical strength, he rose in the army, and when the soldiers revolted a...

Suetonius

(Encyclopedia)Suetonius (Caius Suetonius Tranquillus) swētōˈnēəs [key], c.a.d. 69–c.a.d. 140, Roman biographer. Little is known about his life except that he was briefly the private secretary of Emperor Hadr...

Ivanov, Lev

(Encyclopedia)Ivanov, Lev lyĕf ēväˈnôf [key], 1834–1901, Russian dancer, teacher, choreographer, and ballet-master. Ivanov was assistant to chief ballet-master Marius Petipa at the Imperial St. Petersburg Th...

Browse by Subject