Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

emperor

(Encyclopedia)emperor [Lat. imperator=one holding supreme power, especially applied to generals], the sovereign head of an empire. In the Roman republic the term imperator referred to the chief military commander a...

Cumae

(Encyclopedia)Cumae kyo͞oˈmē [key], ancient city of Campania, Italy, near Naples. According to Strabo, it was the earliest Greek colony in Italy or Sicily, and it seems to have been founded c.750 b.c. by Chalcis...

Honorius III

(Encyclopedia)Honorius III, d. 1227, pope (1216–27), a Roman named Cencio Savelli; successor of Innocent III. He was created cardinal in 1197 and was an able administrator of the papal treasury. He authored the o...

German Catholics

(Encyclopedia)German Catholics, religious groups founded in 1844 by dissidents from the Roman Catholic Church. They were led by two excommunicated priests, Johann Czerski of Schneidemühl, Posen, and Johann Ronge o...

gens

(Encyclopedia)gens jĕnz [key], ancient Roman kinship group. It was the counterpart of what is known in other societies as a patrilineal clan or sib, and the word has been used in social science as a generic term f...

Plunket, Saint Oliver

(Encyclopedia)Plunket orPlunkett, Saint Oliver, 1629–81, Irish Roman Catholic churchman and martyr, b. Co. Meath. He was educated at Rome and named Roman Catholic archbishop of Armagh and primate of all Ireland i...

Ermine Street

(Encyclopedia)Ermine Street, Saxon name for the Roman road in Britain that ran from London to Lincoln and York. It was one of the four main highways of Saxon England. The name is derived from the Earningas, a group...

Anastasia, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Anastasia, Saint ănəstāˈshə [key], 4th cent., Roman noblewoman, kind to the poor, martyred under Diocletian. Her cult can be traced back to 5th-century Rome. In the Roman Catholic Church, her fea...

Tarpeia

(Encyclopedia)Tarpeia tärpēˈyə [key], in Roman legend, a Roman woman who betrayed her city to the Sabines for what they wore on their left arms (their gold bracelets). As they entered Rome they crushed her unde...

pope

(Encyclopedia)pope: see papacy; Popes of the Roman Catholic Church, table; Roman Catholic Church. ...