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Herodotus

(Encyclopedia)Herodotus hrd´ts [key], 484?–425? BC, Greek historian, called the Father of History, b. Halicarnassus, Asia Minor. Only scant knowledge of his life can be gleaned from his writings and from...

Darius the Mede

(Encyclopedia)Darius the Mede, in the Bible, a king of the Medes who succeeded to the throne of Babylonia after Belshazzar. Otherwise unknown outside biblical tradition, it is likely that this Darius has been confu...

Rawlinson, George

(Encyclopedia)Rawlinson, George, 1812–1902, English Orientalist and historian, educated at Oxford. He is known for his long, authoritative, and still useful histories of the ancient world. His most famous history...

Arion

(Encyclopedia)Arion r´n [key], Greek poet, inventor of the dithyramb. He is said to have lived at Periander's court in Corinth in the late 7th cent. BC A legend repeated by Herodotus tells how, having been t...

Thurii

(Encyclopedia)Thurii thyoo´r [key], ancient city of Magna Graecia, S Italy, in Bruttium, on the Gulf of Tarentum (now Taranto). It was founded by Pericles in 443 BC to replace ruined Sybaris. New Greek colon...

Ctesias

(Encyclopedia)Ctesias t´shs, t´ss [key], fl. 400 BC, Greek historian and physician of Cnidus. He lived many years in the Persian court. He tended Artaxerxes II when he was wounded in the battle of Cun...

Tahpanhes

(Encyclopedia)Tahpanhes tä´pnhz [key], Tahapanesthp´nz [key], or Tehaphnehesthf´nhz [key], ancient city, NE Egypt, on Lake Manzala. The site is now on the Suez Canal. Herodotus states that t...

Dodona

(Encyclopedia)Dodona dd´n [key], in Greek religion, the oldest oracle, in inland Epirus, near modern Janina, sacred to Zeus and Dione. According to Herodotus, an old oak tree there became an oracle when a bl...

Leonidas

(Encyclopedia)Leonidas ln´ds [key], d. 480 BC, king of Sparta. He succeeded (c.491 BC) his half-brother, Cleomenes I. When the Persians invaded Greece under Xerxes (480 BC), Leonidas with 300 Spartans and ...

Rennell, James

(Encyclopedia)Rennell, James, 1742–1830, English cartographer, geographer, and oceanographer. He was surveyor general (1764–77) of Bengal and published A Bengal Atlas (1779). He constructed the first approximat...

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