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Ostia

(Encyclopedia)Ostia ŏsˈtēə [key], ancient city of Italy, originally at the mouth of the Tiber but now inland as the Tiber delta has grown. It was founded (4th cent. b.c.) as a protection for Rome, then develope...

Dresden

(Encyclopedia)Dresden drĕzˈdən [key], city, capital of Saxony, E central Germany, on the Elbe River. It ...

Apollonia

(Encyclopedia)Apollonia ăpəlōˈnēə [key] [Gr.,=of Apollo], name of several ancient Greek towns. The most important was a port in Illyria on the Adriatic. It was founded by Corinthians and was later a Greek and...

Czartoryski

(Encyclopedia)Czartoryski chärtôrĭsˈkē [key], Polish princely family. Although of ancient lineage, it rose to prominence only in the 17th cent., and in the 18th cent. during the reign of the Saxon kings of Pol...

Caesar

(Encyclopedia)Caesar sēˈzər [key], ancient Roman patrician family of the Julian gens. There are separate articles on its two most distinguished members, Julius Caesar and Augustus. Another distinguished member o...

Polish Succession, War of the

(Encyclopedia)Polish Succession, War of the, 1733–35. On the death (1733) of Augustus II of Poland, Stanislaus I sought to reascend the Polish throne. He was supported by his son-in-law, Louis XV of France. The r...

Great Depression

(Encyclopedia)Great Depression, in U.S. history, the severe economic crisis generally considered to have been precipitated by the U.S. stock-market crash of 1929. Although it shared the basic characteristics of oth...

Coptos

(Encyclopedia)Coptos kŏpˈtəs [key], ancient city of Egypt, on the right bank of the Nile, c.27 mi (43 km) N of modern Luxor. Remains of the Temple of Min, patron god of Coptos, have been found there as well as r...

equites

(Encyclopedia)equites ĕkˈwĭtēz [key] [Lat.,=horsemen], the original cavalry of the Roman army, chosen, according to legend, by Romulus from the three ancient Roman tribes; the equites were selected from the sen...

Maecenas

(Encyclopedia)Maecenas (Caius Maecenas) mĭsēˈnəs, mē– [key], d. 8 b.c., Roman statesman and patron of letters. He was born (between 74 b.c. and 64 b.c.) into a wealthy family and was a trusted adviser of Oct...