Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Honorius II

(Encyclopedia)Honorius II, d. 1130, pope (1124–30), an Italian named Lamberto, b. Bologna; successor of Calixtus II. Before becoming pope he spent several years in Germany adjusting the quarrel over investiture b...

Agrippina the Younger

(Encyclopedia)Agrippina the Younger, d. a.d. 59, Roman matron; daughter of Germanicus Caesar and Agrippina the Elder. By her first husband, Cneius Domitius Ahenobarbus, she was the mother of Nero. After her brother...

Yang Kuei-fei

(Encyclopedia)Yang Kuei-fei yäng gwā-fā [key], 719–56, concubine of the T'ang emperor Hsüan-tsung. The most famous beauty in Chinese history, in legend she is said to have captivated the emperor who then negl...

Louis the German

(Encyclopedia)Louis the German, c.804–876, king of the East Franks (817–76). When his father, Emperor of the West Louis I, partitioned the empire in 817, Louis received Bavaria and adjacent territories. In the ...

Seven Sleepers of Ephesus

(Encyclopedia)Seven Sleepers of Ephesus ĕfˈĭsəs [key], in a Christian version of a widespread story, martyrs immured in a cave near Ephesus during the persecutions by Decius (c.250). Long afterward, in the 5th ...

Antinoüs

(Encyclopedia)Antinoüs ăntĭnˈōəs [key], c.110–130, favorite of Emperor Hadrian, b. Bithynia. He was with the emperor constantly until on a journey in Egypt he was drowned in the Nile—some say in saving Ha...

Senigallia

(Encyclopedia)Senigallia sānēgälˈlyä [key], city (1991 pop. 41,144), in the Marche, central Italy, on the Adriatic Sea. It is a port, a seaside resort, and an industrial center. Manufactures include textiles, ...

Eustathius

(Encyclopedia)Eustathius, d. c.1194, Byzantine scholar, archbishop of Salonica (from 1175). He became renowned as master of the orators at Hagia Sophia, Constantinople, then a center of learning. He lectured on Hom...

Kanellopoulos, Panayotis

(Encyclopedia)Kanellopoulos, Panayotis pänäyôˈtēs känālōˈpo͞olōs [key], 1902–86, Greek writer and political leader. A professor of sociology at the Univ. of Athens, he was active in World War II in the...

Klesl, Melchior

(Encyclopedia)Klesl or Khlesl, Melchior both: mĕlˈkhyôr klāˈsəl [key], 1552–1630, Austrian politician, cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. The son of a Protestant baker, he was converted to Catholicism b...