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Metapontum

(Encyclopedia)Metapontum mĕtəpŏnˈtəm [key], ancient city of Magna Graecia, on the Gulf of Taranto, SE Italy. Settled by Greeks, c.7th cent. b.c., it flourished and gave refuge to Pythagoreans expelled from Cro...

transmigration of souls

(Encyclopedia)transmigration of souls or metempsychosis mətĕmˌsəkōˈsĭs [key] [Gr.,=change of soul], a belief common to many cultures, in which the soul passes from one body to another, either human, animal, ...

Porphyry, Greek scholar

(Encyclopedia)Porphyry pôrˈfĭrē [key], c.232–c.304, Greek scholar and Neoplatonic philosopher. He studied rhetoric under Cassius Longinus and philosophy under Plotinus. He later lectured in Rome on the philos...

Polycrates

(Encyclopedia)Polycrates pōlĭkˈrətēz [key], d. c.522 b.c., tyrant of Samos. He established Samian naval supremacy in the Aegean Sea and tried to control the archipelago and mainland towns of Ionia. He dominate...

Crotona

(Encyclopedia)Crotona both: krōˈtən [key], ancient city, S Italy, on the east coast of Bruttium (now Calabria), a colony of Magna Graecia founded c.708 b.c. There Pythagoras established his school, which exerted...

tuning systems

(Encyclopedia)tuning systems, methods for assigning pitches to the twelve Western pitch names that constitute the octave. The term usually refers to this procedure in the tuning of keyboard instruments. The need fo...

Messina

(Encyclopedia)Messina mās-sēˈnä [key], city (1991 pop. 231,693), capital of Messina prov., NE Sicily, Italy, on the Strait of Messina, opposite the Italian mainland. It is a busy seaport and a commercial and li...

Sámos

(Encyclopedia)Sámos sāˈmŏs, Gr. säˈmôs [key], island (1991 pop. 33,032), c.181 sq mi (469 sq km), SE Greece, in the Aegean Sea; one of the Southern Sporades, near Turkey. Largely mountainous, it rises to c.4...

Bedford, John of Lancaster, duke of

(Encyclopedia)Bedford, John of Lancaster, duke of, 1389–1435, English nobleman; third son of Henry IV of England and brother of Henry V. At the death (1422) of his brother and succession of his 9-month-old nephew...