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Drusus

(Encyclopedia)Drusus dro͞oˈsəs [key], Roman family of the gens Livius. An early distinguished member was Marcus Livius Drusus, d. 109? b.c., tribune of the people (122) with Caius Sempronius Gracchus (see under ...

Conti

(Encyclopedia)Conti kôNtēˈ [key], cadet branch of the French royal house of Bourbon. Although the title of prince of Conti was created in the 16th cent., the founder of the continuous line was Armand de Bourbon,...

pragmatic sanction

(Encyclopedia)pragmatic sanction, decision of state dealing with a matter of great importance to a community or a whole state and having the force of fundamental law. The term originated in Roman law and was used o...

Brutus, in ancient Rome

(Encyclopedia)Brutus bro͞oˈtəs [key], in ancient Rome, a surname of the Junian gens. Lucius Junius Brutus, fl. 510 b.c., was the founder of the Roman republic. He feigned idiocy to escape death at the hands of L...

Cassius

(Encyclopedia)Cassius kăshˈəs [key], ancient Roman family. There were a number of well-known members. Spurius Cassius Viscellinus, d. c.485 b.c., seems to have been consul several times. In 493 b.c. he negotiate...

Davis, Gray

(Encyclopedia)Davis, Gray (Joseph Graham Davis, Jr.), 1942–, U.S. politician, b. the Bronx, N.Y. A graduate of Stanford Univ. (1964) and Columbia Univ. Law School (1967), he entered the army and served in Vietnam...

Baze, Russell Avery

(Encyclopedia)Baze, Russell Avery, 1958–, Canadian-American jockey, b. Vancouver, Canada. He rode primarily at tracks in N California. In 2006 he surpassed Laffit Pincay, Jr.'s record for career wins, and in 2008...

Wheatley, Phillis

(Encyclopedia)Wheatley, Phillis, 1753?–1784, American poet, considered the first important black writer in the United States. Brought from Africa in 1761, she became a house slave for the Boston merchant John Whe...

tanning

(Encyclopedia)tanning, process by which skins and hides are converted into leather. Vegetable tanning, a method requiring more than a month even with modern machinery and tanning liquors, employs tannin; its use is...

Tarragona

(Encyclopedia)Tarragona tär-rəgōˈnə [key], city (1990 pop. 112,360), capital of Tarragona prov., NE Spain, in Catalonia, on the Mediterranean Sea at the mouth of the Francolí River. A port and commercial cent...