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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...

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 ...

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...

Farnese Bull

(Encyclopedia)Farnese Bull, sculptured group representing Zethus and Amphion, sons of Antiope, tying Dirce (who had ill-treated their mother) to an enraged bull. The sculpture is generally considered to have been e...

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...

Onkelos

(Encyclopedia)Onkelos ŏngˈkəlōs [key], 2d cent. a.d., translator of the Hebrew Bible into Aramaic, his work later being given the title Targum Onkelos (see Targum). A proselyte, he gained the respect of the lea...

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...