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Roman roads

(Encyclopedia)Roman roads, ancient system of highways linking Rome with its provinces. Their primary purpose was military, but they also were of great commercial importance and brought the distant provinces in touc...

Sol, in Roman religion

(Encyclopedia)Sol sŏl [key], in Roman religion, sun god. An ancient god of Mesopotamian origin, he was introduced (c.220) into Roman religion as Sol Invictus by emperor Heliogabalus. His worship remained an import...

Roman architecture

(Encyclopedia)Roman architecture, structures produced by the ancient Romans. Most important among the structures developed by the Romans themselves were basilicas, baths, amphitheaters, and triumphal arches. U...

Maximilian II, 1527–76, Holy Roman emperor

(Encyclopedia)Maximilian II, 1527–76, Holy Roman emperor (1564–76), king of Bohemia (1562–76) and of Hungary (1563–76), son and successor of Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I. Before acceding he evidenced a sy...

Harsha, Indian emperor

(Encyclopedia)Harsha hûrˈshə [key], b. c.590, Indian emperor (606–47). He became (606) king of a small state in the upper Ganges Valley, and by 612 he had built up a vast army with which he forged nearly all I...

Leo IV, Byzantine emperor

(Encyclopedia)Leo IV (Leo the Khazar), d. 780, Byzantine emperor (775–80), son and successor of Constantine V. He owed his nickname to his mother, a Khazar princess. Leo tempered the iconoclastic excesses of his ...

Gregory II, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Gregory II, Saint, d. 731, pope (715–31), a Roman; successor of Constantine. When Byzantine Emperor Leo III tried to impose iconoclasm in Italy by an imperial edict, Gregory answered that the empero...

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...

Cicero, Roman orator

(Encyclopedia)Cicero (Marcus Tullius Cicero) sĭsˈərō [key] or Tully, 106 b.c.–43 b.c., greatest Roman orator, famous also as a politician and a philosopher. To the modern reader probably the most interesti...

Martin IV, d. 1285, pope

(Encyclopedia)Martin IV, d. 1285, pope (1281–85), a Frenchman named Simon de Brie; successor of Nicholas III. He was chancellor under Louis IX of France and was created cardinal by Urban IV. He was thus a support...