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Aesop

(Encyclopedia)Aesop ēˈsəp, ēˈsŏp [key], legendary Greek fabulist. According to Herodotus, he was a slave who lived in Samos in the 6th cent. b.c. and eventually was freed by his master. Other accounts associa...

Halicarnassus

(Encyclopedia)Halicarnassus hălˌĭkärnăˈsəs [key], ancient city of Caria, SW Asia Minor, on the Ceramic Gulf (now the Gulf of Kos) and on the site of the modern city of Bodrum, Turkey. Halicarnassus was Greek...

Strabo

(Encyclopedia)Strabo strāˈbō [key], b. c.63 b.c., d. after a.d. 21, Greek geographer, historian, and philosopher, b. Amasya, Pontus. He studied in Asia Minor, Greece, Rome, and Alexandria and traveled in Europe,...

Cambyses

(Encyclopedia)Cambyses kămbīˈsēz [key], two kings of the Achaemenid dynasty of Persia. Cambyses I was king (c.600 b.c.) of Ansham, ruling as a vassal of Media. According to Herodotus he married the daughter of ...

Sarmatia

(Encyclopedia)Sarmatia särmāˈshə [key], ancient district between the Vistula River and the Caspian Sea, gradually conquered and occupied by the Sarmatians [Lat. Sarmatae] or Sauromatians (a term used by Herodot...

pipe smoking

(Encyclopedia)pipe smoking. The habit of smoking various substances probably arose independently in different parts of the world. Herodotus in the 5th cent. b.c. describes the Scythians as inhaling the fumes of bur...

Fazzan

(Encyclopedia)Fazzan fĕz– [key], historic region, SW Libya. Marzuq, Sabhha, Brak, and Zawilah, all situated in oases in the Sahara Desert, are the chief settlements. The population is largely Arab, with Berber a...

Valla, Lorenzo

(Encyclopedia)Valla, Lorenzo lōrānˈtsō välˈlä [key], c.1407–57, Italian humanist. Valla knew Greek and Latin well and was chosen by Pope Nicholas V to translate Herodotus and Thucydides into Latin. From hi...

plover

(Encyclopedia)plover plŭvˈər [key], common name for some members of the large family Charadriidae, shore birds, small to medium in size, found in ice-free lands all over the world. Plovers are plumpish wading bi...

oral history

(Encyclopedia)oral history, compilation of historical data through interviews, usually tape-recorded and sometimes videotaped, with participants in, or observers of, significant events or times. Primitive societies...

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