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Bactria

(Encyclopedia)Bactria băkˈtrēə [key], ancient Greek kingdom in central Asia. Its capital was Bactra, present-day Balkh in N Afghanistan. Before the Greek conquest, the region was an eastern province of the Pers...

apple of discord

(Encyclopedia)apple of discord: see Paris, in Greek mythology. ...

Pétain, Henri Philippe

(Encyclopedia)Pétain, Henri Philippe äNrēˈ fēlēpˈ pātăNˈ [key], 1856–1951, French army officer, head of state of the Vichy government (see under Vichy). In World War I he halted the Germans at Verdun (1...

Aristophanes

(Encyclopedia)Aristophanes ărˌĭstŏfˈənēz [key], c.448 b.c.–c.388 b.c., Greek playwright, Athenian comic poet, greatest of the ancient writers of comedy. His plays, the only full extant samples of the Greek...

Callimachus, fl. c.280–45 b.c., Hellenistic Greek poet and critic

(Encyclopedia)Callimachus, fl. c.280–45 b.c., Hellenistic Greek poet and critic, b. Cyrene. Educated at Athens, he taught before obtaining work in the Alexandrian library. There he drew up a catalog, with such co...

Ionia

(Encyclopedia)Ionia īōˈnēə [key], ancient region of Asia Minor. It occupied a narrow coastal strip on the E Mediterranean (in present-day W Turkey) as well as the neighboring Aegean Islands, which now mainly b...

Syracuse, city, Italy

(Encyclopedia)Syracuse sĭrˈəkyo͞os, –kyo͞oz [key], Ital. Siracusa, city (1991 pop. 125,941), capital of Syracuse prov., SE Sicily, Italy, on the Ionian Sea. It has a port and is a market and tourist center. ...

Persian Wars

(Encyclopedia)Persian Wars, 500 b.c.–449 b.c., series of conflicts fought between Greek states and the Persian Empire. The writings of Herodotus, who was born c.484 b.c., are the great source of knowledge of the ...

Thrace

(Encyclopedia)Thrace thrās [key], region, 3,310 sq mi (8,575 sq km), SE Europe, occupying the southeastern tip of the Balkan Peninsula and comprising NE Greece, S Bulgaria, and European Turkey. Its boundaries have...

Dionysius Thrax

(Encyclopedia)Dionysius Thrax [Lat.,=the Thracian], c.170–c.90 b.c., Greek grammarian of Alexandria. His Art of Grammar remained a standard work for centuries and was a model for subsequent grammars. ...