Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

basilica

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Floor plan of a basilica basilica bəsĭlˈĭkə [key], large building erected by the Romans for transacting business and disposing of legal matters. Rectangular in form with a roofed hall, th...

Cyrus the Great

(Encyclopedia)Cyrus the Great sīˈrəs [key], d. 529 b.c., king of Persia, founder of the greatness of the Achaemenids and of the Persian Empire. According to Herodotus, he was the son of an Iranian noble, the eld...

Thistlewood, Arthur

(Encyclopedia)Thistlewood, Arthur, 1770–1820, British conspirator. He acquired revolutionary views while traveling in France and America and, after his return to England, joined the revolutionary Spencean Society...

Scipio Africanus Major

(Encyclopedia)Scipio Africanus Major (Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus) ăfrĭkāˈnəs [key], 236–183 b.c., Roman general, the conqueror of Hannibal in the Punic Wars. He was the son of Publius Cornelius Scipi...

John, three epistles of the New Testament

(Encyclopedia)John, three letters of the New Testament. Traditionally, they are ascribed to John son of Zebedee, the disciple of Jesus. All three letters probably date to the end of the 1st cent. a.d., and may have...

Charles II, emperor of the West and king of the West Franks

(Encyclopedia)Charles II or Charles the Bald, 823–77, emperor of the West (875–77) and king of the West Franks (843–77); son of Emperor Louis I by a second marriage. The efforts of Louis to create a kingdom f...

Montmorency, Henri, duc de, the younger, 1595–1632, admiral and marshal of France

(Encyclopedia)Montmorency, Henri, duc de, the younger, 1595–1632, admiral and marshal of France; son of the elder Henri de Montmorency. He became governor of Languedoc in 1613 and fought in the religious and fore...

Clinton, George, vice president of the United States

(Encyclopedia)Clinton, George, 1739–1812, American statesman, vice president of the United States (1805–1812), b. Little Britain, N.Y. Before he was 20 he served on a privateer and, in the French and Indian War...

Brutus, in ancient Rome

(Encyclopedia)Brutus bro͞oˈtəs [key], in ancient Rome, a surname of the Junian gens. Lucius Junius Brutus, fl. 510 b.c., was the founder of the Roman republic. He feigned idiocy to escape death at the hands of L...

Ghor, the

(Encyclopedia)Ghor, the, Arabic Al Ghawr, region of the Jordan Valley, c.70 mi (110 km) long, between the Sea of Galilee (Lake Tiberias) and the Dead Sea, on the border of Jordan and Israel and the West Bank. Entir...