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Etruria

(Encyclopedia)Etruria ĭtro͝orˈēə [key], ancient country, W central Italy, now forming Tuscany and part of Umbria. It was the territory of the Etruscans, who in the 6th cent. b.c. spread Etruscan civilization t...

Silk Road

(Encyclopedia)Silk Road, ancient overland trade route linking Asia and Europe, consisting of a network of caravan routes running from China across central Asia to the shores of the Mediterranean. Its starting point...

Nyssa

(Encyclopedia)Nyssa nĭsˈə [key], name of several ancient cities devoted to the worship of Dionysus. The best known of them is a town of Cappadocia, Asia Minor, near the Halys (now the Kizil Irmak) River. It was ...

domino theory

(Encyclopedia)domino theory, the notion that if one country becomes Communist, other nations in the region will probably follow, like dominoes falling in a line. The analogy, first applied (1954) to Southeast Asia ...

West Siberian Plain

(Encyclopedia)West Siberian Plain, an extensive region of continuous flatland, N Asia, comprising the western third of Siberia, Russia. It is bounded on the east by the Yenisei River, on the north by the Arctic Oce...

Parthia

(Encyclopedia)Parthia pärˈthēə [key], ancient country of Asia, SE of the Caspian Sea. In its narrowest limits it consisted of a mountainous region intersected with fertile valleys, lying S of Hyrcania and corre...

Perga

(Encyclopedia)Perga pûrˈgə [key], ancient city of Pamphylia, S Asia Minor, 10 mi (16 km) NE of the modern Antalya, Turkey. It was the seat of an Asian nature goddess. St. Paul came here on his first journey (Act...

Hierapolis

(Encyclopedia)Hierapolis hīərăpˈəlĭs [key], ancient city of Phrygia, W Asia Minor, 7 mi (11.3 km) N of Laodicea and on a plateau 500 ft (152 m) above the Lycus valley (in present-day Turkey). Devoted to the w...

Pergamum

(Encyclopedia)Pergamum pûrˈgəməm [key], ancient city of NW Asia Minor, in Mysia (modern Turkey), in the fertile valley of the Caicus. It became important c.300 b.c., after the breakup of the Macedonian empire, ...

Samnium

(Encyclopedia)Samnium sămˈnēəm [key], ancient country of central and S Italy, mostly in the S Apennines. It was E of Campania and Latium and NE of Apulia. ...