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Alfonso VII, Spanish king of Castile and León

(Encyclopedia)Alfonso VII (Alfonso the Emperor), 1104–57, Spanish king of Castile and León (1126–57), son and successor of Urraca. He recovered the places in Castile that his stepfather, Alfonso I of Aragón, ...

Hadrian's Wall

(Encyclopedia)Hadrian's Wall, ancient Roman wall, 73.5 mi (118.3 km) long, across the narrow part of the island of Great Britain from Wallsend on the Tyne River to Bowness at the head of Solway Firth. It was mainly...

Norton, Joshua Abraham

(Encyclopedia)Norton, Joshua Abraham, 1818–80, colorful eccentric of San Francisco known as “Emperor Norton,” b. London. He went (1820) with his parents to Cape Town, South Africa, and news of the California ...

Soulouque, Faustin Élie

(Encyclopedia)Soulouque, Faustin Élie fōstăNˈ ālēˈ so͞olo͞okˈ [key], c.1785–1867, emperor of Haiti (1849–59). An illiterate former slave, he became president in 1847 and then declared himself emperor ...

Probus

(Encyclopedia)Probus (Marcus Aurelius Probus) prōˈbəs [key], d. 282, Roman emperor (276–82), b. Pannonia. He was governor of the East under Marcus Claudius Tacitus, whom he succeeded as emperor. He defeated th...

Carus

(Encyclopedia)Carus (Marcus Aurelius Carus) kârˈəs [key], d. 283, Roman emperor (282–83). Praetorian prefect under Probus, he was made emperor by the soldiers after the murder of Probus. Leaving his son Carinu...

Corinth, Isthmus of

(Encyclopedia)Corinth, Isthmus of, c.20 mi (32 km) long and 4–8 mi (6.4–12.9 km) wide, connecting central Greece (Attica and Boeotia) with the Peloponnesus, between the Gulf of Corinth and the Saronic Gulf. It ...

Iberia

(Encyclopedia)Iberia ībĭrˈēə [key], ancient country of Transcaucasia, roughly the eastern part of present-day Georgia. It was inhabited in earliest times by various tribes, collectively called Iberians by anci...

Pentapolis

(Encyclopedia)Pentapolis pĕntăˈpəlĭs [key] [Gr.,=five cities], collective name anciently applied to several groups of five cities. The chief cities of Cyrenaica on the northern coast of Africa (Apollonia, Arsi...

patriarch, in Christian churches

(Encyclopedia)patriarch, in Christian churches, title of certain exalted bishops, implying authority over a number of other bishops. There were originally three patriarchates: the West, held by the bishop of Rome (...