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Ypsilanti, Greek family

(Encyclopedia)Ypsilanti or Hypsilanti both: ĭpˌsĭlănˈtē [key], prominent Greek family of Phanariots (see under Phanar). An early distinguished member, Alexander Ypsilanti, c.1725–c.1807, was dragoman (minis...

Nicaea

(Encyclopedia)Nicaea nīsēˈə [key], city of Bithnyia, N Asia Minor, built in the 4th cent. b.c. by Antigonus I as Antigonia and renamed Nicaea by Lysimachus for his wife. It flourished under the Romans. It was t...

Peterhof

(Encyclopedia)Peterhof or Petergof pyĕˌtrədvəryĕtsˈ [key], town, NW European Russia, on Neva Bay of the Gulf of Finland. Administratively part of Saint Petersburg, Peterhof is a port, a rail terminus, and a r...

Byzantine Empire

(Encyclopedia)CE5 CE5 Byzantine Empire (c.1000) Byzantine Empire, successor state to the Roman Empire (see under Rome), also called Eastern Empire and East Roman Empire. It was named after Byzantium, which Emp...

Constantinople

(Encyclopedia)Constantinople kŏnˌstănˌtĭnōˈpəl [key], former capital of the Byzantine Empire and of the Ottoman Empire, since 1930 officially called İstanbul (for location and description, see İstanbul). ...

Constanţa

(Encyclopedia)Constanţa kônstänˈtsä [key], city, SE Romania, on the Black Sea. It is the administrative center ...

Constantius III

(Encyclopedia)Constantius III, d. 421, Roman emperor of the West (421). In 411, as general of Honorius, he defeated Gerontius and Constantine; thereafter he was the virtual ruler of the West. Aspiring to the hand o...

Olaf Guthfrithson

(Encyclopedia)Olaf Guthfrithson sĭtˈrĭkˌsən [key], d. 981, often called Olaf Cuaran, was expelled from Northumbria by Edmund in 944. He returned to rule in Ireland, where he was in 980 defeated at the battle o...

Zaïmis, Alexander

(Encyclopedia)Zaïmis, Alexander zäˈēmēs [key], 1855–1936, Greek statesman. At the end of the disastrous 1897 war with Turkey, he became premier for the first time (1897–99). He was again premier in 1901–...

baptistery

(Encyclopedia)baptistery băpˈtĭstrē [key], part of a church, or a separate building in connection with it, used for administering baptism. In the earliest examples it was merely a basin or pool set into the flo...