Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Durrës

(Encyclopedia)Durrës do͞orˈəs [key], Ital. Durazzo, city (1989 pop. 82,719), capital of Durrës dist., W Albania, on the Adriatic Sea. The chief seaport of Albania and the leading commercial and communications ...

titles

(Encyclopedia)CE5 titles, terms used to designate degrees of sovereignty, nobility, and honor. In the Muslim world the temporal successors of Muhammad received the title caliph (literally, “successor”). ...

Meiji

(Encyclopedia)Meiji māˈjē [key], 1852–1912, reign name of the emperor of Japan from 1867 to 1912; his given name was Mutsuhito. He ascended the throne when he was 15. A year later the shogun fell, and the powe...

Heliogabalus

(Encyclopedia)Heliogabalus ĕləgăbˈələs [key], c.205–222, Roman emperor (218–22). He was a priest of the local sun god, Elagabalus, at Emesa and was named Varius Avitus Bassianus. He was a cousin of Caraca...

Early Christian art and architecture

(Encyclopedia)Early Christian art and architecture, works of art exhibiting Christian themes and structures designed for Christian worship created relatively soon after the death of Jesus. Most date from the 4th to...

Lombard League

(Encyclopedia)Lombard League, an alliance formed in 1167 among the communes of Lombardy to resist Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I when he attempted to assert his imperial authority in Lombardy. Previously the commun...

Confederation of the Rhine

(Encyclopedia)Confederation of the Rhine, league of German states formed by Emperor Napoleon I in 1806 after his defeat of the Austrians at Austerlitz. Among its members were the newly created kingdoms of Bavaria a...

Otho, Marcus Salvius

(Encyclopedia)Otho, Marcus Salvius ōˈthō [key], a.d. 32–a.d. 69, Roman emperor (Jan.–April, a.d. 69). He was a friend of Nero, and his wife, Poppaea Sabina, became Nero's mistress; Otho was repaid (a.d. 58) ...

Frederick I, elector of Brandenburg

(Encyclopedia)Frederick I, 1371–1440, elector of Brandenburg (1415–40), first of the Hohenzollerns (see Hohenzollern, family) to rule Brandenburg. As Frederick VI, burgrave of Nuremburg, he served under King Si...

Avitus

(Encyclopedia)Avitus əvīˈtəs [key], d. 456?, Roman emperor of the West (455–56). He was proclaimed emperor in Gaul with the support of the Visigoths but was deposed by Ricimer. He was elected bishop of Placen...

Browse by Subject