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Heraclea

(Encyclopedia)Heraclea hĕrəklēˈə [key], ancient Greek city, in Lucania, S Italy, not far from the Gulf of Tarentum (Taranto). There Pyrrhus defeated the Romans in 280 b.c. Bronze tablets giving Roman municipal...

Peter's pence

(Encyclopedia)Peter's pence, in the Roman Catholic Church, the annual voluntary laymen's contribution to the support of the pope. Formerly Peter's pence was a yearly tax of a penny levied by the Holy See on every h...

Bad Reichenhall

(Encyclopedia)Bad Reichenhall bät rīˈkhənhäl [key] or Reichenhall, town, Bavaria, S central Germany, on ...

Bitterroot, river, United States

(Encyclopedia)Bitterroot, river, c.120 mi (190 km) long, rising in SW Mont. and flowing north to join the Clark Fork River near Missoula. A Roman Catholic mission was established on the river in 1841, and missionar...

Censorinus

(Encyclopedia)Censorinus sĕnsōrīˈnəs [key], fl. c.238, Roman grammarian. He wrote De die natali [on the day of birth], an essay partly astrological, partly chronological, which affords much information on anci...

Mona, island, Great Britain

(Encyclopedia)Mona, Roman name for the island of Anglesey, Wales. It was also sometimes used to designate the Isle of Man. ...

Morpheus

(Encyclopedia)Morpheus môrˈfēəs [key], in Greek and Roman mythology, god of dreams. The son of Hypnos (or Somnus), the god of sleep, he brought dreams of human forms. His brothers Phobetor and Phantasos induced...

Saint John's University

(Encyclopedia)Saint John's University, main campus at Jamaica, New York City; Roman Catholic; coeducational; established 1870 as St. John's College. Its present name was adopted in 1954. It is the largest Catholic ...

Tellus

(Encyclopedia)Tellus tĕlˈəs [key], in Roman religion, earth goddess; also called Terra Mater. As a goddess of fertility, she was worshiped at festivals held in January (in conjunction with Ceres) and in April. T...

Comus

(Encyclopedia)Comus kōˈməs [key], in late Roman legend, god of mirth and revelry. A follower of Dionysus, he was represented as a drunken youth bearing a torch. In Milton's poetic masque, Comus, he is the mischi...