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Sturges, Preston

(Encyclopedia)Sturges, Preston stûrˈjĭs [key], 1898–1959, American film director, screenwriter, and producer, b. Chicago as Edmond Preston Biden. Educated in the United States and Europe, he turned to playwrit...

Gellius, Aulus

(Encyclopedia)Gellius, Aulus jĕlˈyəs [key], fl. 2d cent., Roman writer. He was a lawyer who spent at least a year in Athens and wrote Noctes Atticae [Attic nights], a collection of discussions of law, antiquitie...

Tiridates , king of Parthia

(Encyclopedia)Tiridates tĭrˌĭdāˈtēz [key], d. 211 b.c., king of Parthia (c.248–211 b.c.), 2d ruler of the Arsacid dynasty (see under Arsaces). He absorbed Hyrcania and, with the ruler of Bactria, successful...

Oppian

(Encyclopedia)Oppian ŏpˈēən [key], fl. 2d cent., Greek poet. He is the author of a didactic poem (in five books of hexameters) on fishing called Halieutica. Two other poems, formerly attributed to Oppian, are n...

Boscoreale

(Encyclopedia)Boscoreale bôsˌkōrā-äˈlā [key], town, in Campania, S Italy, at the foot of Vesuvius. Roman villas ...

Beth-shemesh

(Encyclopedia)Beth-shemesh bĕth-shēˈmĕsh [key], in the Bible. 1 The Egyptian Heliopolis. 2 Town of ancient Palestine, the modern Tel Bet Shemesh (Israel), W of Jerusalem. Excavations there have revealed traces ...

Arion

(Encyclopedia)Arion ərĭˈən [key], Greek poet, inventor of the dithyramb. He is said to have lived at Periander's court in Corinth in the late 7th cent. b.c. A legend repeated by Herodotus tells how, having been...

Aristides, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Aristides, Saint ârĭstīˈdēz [key], 2d cent., Greek philosopher, author of an early Christian apology. It was presented (c.126 or 136) to the emperor to protest anti-Christian slanders and persecu...

Matthew, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Matthew, Saint, in the New Testament, one of the Twelve Apostles. Also called Levi, he was a publican (tax collector) from Capernaum. Since the 2d cent. the first Gospel (see Matthew, Gospel according...

Froment, Nicolas

(Encyclopedia)Froment, Nicolas nēkôläˈ frômäNˈ [key], fl. 2d half of 15th cent., French painter of the Provençal school. While in the service of René of Anjou at Avignon, he painted The Resurrection of Laz...