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Cadwaladr

(Encyclopedia)Cadwaladr or Cadwallader both: kădwälˈədər [key], d. 664?, semilegendary Welsh king, leader of the Celtic resistance against the Anglo-Saxons. Later bards made him a national hero, and Welsh trad...

Scipio

(Encyclopedia)Scipio sĭpˈēō [key], ancient Roman family of the Cornelian gens. They were patricians. During the 3d and 2d cent. b.c. they were distinguished by their love of Greek culture and learning. Their we...

sharecropping

(Encyclopedia)sharecropping, an agricultural system in which a landowner allows a tenant to use their land in return for a share of the crop produced. In the United S...

Chekhov, Anton Pavlovich

(Encyclopedia)Chekhov, Anton Pavlovich chĕkˈôf, Rus. əntônˈ pävˈləvĭch chĕˈkhəv [key], 1860–1904, Russian short-story writer, dramatist, and physician, b. Taganrog. The son of a grocer and grandson o...

Cassius

(Encyclopedia)Cassius kăshˈəs [key], ancient Roman family. There were a number of well-known members. Spurius Cassius Viscellinus, d. c.485 b.c., seems to have been consul several times. In 493 b.c. he negotiate...

Michael I, Byzantine emperor

(Encyclopedia)Michael I (Michael Rangabe), d. c.845, Byzantine emperor (811–13), son-in-law of Nicephorus I. He supported orthodoxy against iconoclasm and recalled Theodore of Studium from exile. He recognized (8...

Thrasea Paetus

(Encyclopedia)Thrasea Paetus (Publius Clodius Thrasea Paetus) thrāsēˈə pēˈtəs [key], d. a.d. 66, Roman senator and Stoic philosopher. He criticized Nero, who commanded the senate to condemn him to death. Whe...

Rodoreda, Mercè

(Encyclopedia)Rodoreda, Mercè, 1909–83, Spanish novelist writing in Catalan. Exiled for several decades in Paris and Geneva following the Spanish Civil War, Rodoreda focuses her novel Time of the Doves (1962, tr...

Dickinson, Goldsworthy Lowes

(Encyclopedia)Dickinson, Goldsworthy Lowes, 1862–1932, English author. He was a pacifist during World War I, and he was later instrumental in the conception of the League of Nations. His political writings includ...

Ferdinand II, Spanish king of León

(Encyclopedia)Ferdinand II, d. 1188, Spanish king of León (1157–88), son and successor of Alfonso VII. He invaded Castile and set up a protectorate during the minority (1158–66) of his nephew Alfonso VIII. He ...

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