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taffeta

(Encyclopedia)taffeta, cloth, originally silk but now also made of synthetic fibers, supposed to have originated in Persia. The name, derived from Persian, means “twisted woven.” Taffeta is in the same class an...

Bruyn, Cornelis de

(Encyclopedia)Bruyn, Cornelis de broin [key], 1652–c.1726, Dutch portrait painter and traveler. He painted for some years in Italy, where he was known, in Rome, as Adonis. Bruyn is remembered chiefly for the rec...

Cyrus the Great

(Encyclopedia)Cyrus the Great sīˈrəs [key], d. 529 b.c., king of Persia, founder of the greatness of the Achaemenids and of the Persian Empire. According to Herodotus, he was the son of an Iranian noble, the eld...

Delian League

(Encyclopedia)Delian League dēˈlēən [key], confederation of Greek city-states under the leadership of Athens. The name is used to designate two distinct periods of alliance, the first 478–404 b.c., the second...

Artemisia, ruler of Caria

(Encyclopedia)Artemisia ärˌtəmĭˈshēə [key], fl. 4th cent. b.c., ruler of the ancient region of Caria. She was the sister, wife, and successor of Mausolus and erected the mausoleum at Halicarnassus in his mem...

Maurice, Byzantine emperor

(Encyclopedia)Maurice môrˈĭs [key], c.539–602, Byzantine emperor (582–602). He was a successful general when, on his deathbed, Tiberius II, his father-in-law and the successor of Justin II, proclaimed him em...

Damavand

(Encyclopedia)Damavand or Demavend both: dĕmˈəvĕnd [key], volcanic cone, 18,606 ft (5,671 m) high, in the Elburz range, N Iran. A permanently snow-covered volcano of recent geologic origin, it emits gases and s...

Anastasius I

(Encyclopedia)Anastasius I ănəstāˈshəs, –zhəs [key], c.430–518, Roman emperor of the East (491–518); successor of Zeno, whose widow he married. He broke the power that the Isaurians had enjoyed since Le...

Valle, Pietro della

(Encyclopedia)Valle, Pietro della pyĕˈtrō dĕlˈlä välˈlā [key], 1586–1652, Italian traveler in Asia. He sailed (1614) from Venice; spent a year in Constantinople, where he studied Turkish and Arabic; then...

Issus

(Encyclopedia)Issus ĭsˈəs [key], ancient town of SE Asia Minor, now in Turkey, 5 mi (8 km) NW of Dörtyol. Located near the head of a gulf (the modern Gulf of Iskenderun), Issus was on a narrow strip of land bac...