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Venus, in Roman religion and mythology

(Encyclopedia)Venus, in Roman religion and mythology, goddess of vegetation. Later, she became identified (3d cent. b.c.) with the Greek Aphrodite. In imperial times she was worshiped as Venus Genetrix, mother of A...

Quintilian

(Encyclopedia)Quintilian (Marcus Fabius Quintilianus) kwĭntĭlˈyən [key], c.a.d. 35–c.a.d. 95, Roman rhetorician, b. Calagurris (now Calahorra), Spain. He taught rhetoric at Rome (Pliny the Younger and possibl...

Ireland, John, American Roman Catholic prelate

(Encyclopedia)Ireland, John īrˈlənd [key], 1838–1918, American Roman Catholic prelate, first archbishop of St. Paul, Minn. (1888–1918), b. Co. Kilkenny, Ireland. He emigrated to St. Paul in childhood. He was...

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...

Boleslaus III

(Encyclopedia)Boleslaus III, 1085–1138, duke of Poland (1102–38). The kingdom had been divided by his father, Ladislaus Herman, between Boleslaus and his elder brother Zbigniew, whose legitimacy was disputed. Z...

Frederick III, emperor of Germany and king of Prussia

(Encyclopedia)Frederick III, 1831–88, emperor of Germany and king of Prussia (Mar.–June, 1888), son and successor of William I. In 1858 he married Victoria, the princess royal of England, who exerted considerab...

Klesl, Melchior

(Encyclopedia)Klesl or Khlesl, Melchior both: mĕlˈkhyôr klāˈsəl [key], 1552–1630, Austrian politician, cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. The son of a Protestant baker, he was converted to Catholicism b...

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...

Macrinus

(Encyclopedia)Macrinus (Marcus Opellius Severus Macrinus) məkrīˈnəs [key], 164–218, Roman emperor (217–18). A Moorish officer, prefect of the Praetorian Guard under Caracalla, he was threatened by the emper...