Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Lysimachus

(Encyclopedia)Lysimachus līsĭmˈəkəs [key], c.355–281 b.c., Thessalian general of Alexander the Great. He was a commander in Alexander's fleet on the Hydaspes as well as his bodyguard. On Alexander's death (3...

Keilson, Hans Alex

(Encyclopedia)Keilson, Hans Alex, 1909–2011, German-Dutch novelist and physician. He attended medical school in Berlin, but Nazi racial laws prevented Keilson, who was Jewish, from practicing. In 1933 he publishe...

Aeschines

(Encyclopedia)Aeschines ĕˈskĭnēz [key], c.390–314? b.c., Athenian orator, rival of Demosthenes. Aeschines rose from humble circumstances and became powerful in politics because of his oratorical gifts. At fir...

Suárez González, Adolfo

(Encyclopedia)Suárez González, Adolfo ädôlˈfō swäˈrāth gōnthäˈlĕth [key], 1932–2014, Spanish lawyer and political leader. Because he had worked in the Nationalist Movement (the Falange) for 18 years ...

Tissaphernes

(Encyclopedia)Tissaphernes tĭsˌəfûrˈnēz [key], d. 395 b.c., Persian satrap of coastal Asia Minor (c.413–395 b.c.). He was encouraged by Alcibiades (412) to intervene in the Peloponnesian War in support of S...

barley

(Encyclopedia)barley, annual cereal plant (Hordeum vulgare and sometimes other species) of the family Poaceae (grass family), cultivated by humans probably as early as any cereal. It was known to the ancient Greeks...

Sea Peoples

(Encyclopedia)Sea Peoples, modern term for any of the groups of people who attacked Egypt and the E Mediterranean by sea and sometimes by land c.1200 b.c. They are recorded as having fought in battles with Egypt du...

Pride, Charley

(Encyclopedia)Pride, Charley (Charley Frank Pride), 1934–2020, American country singer, the first African-American country-music superstar, b. Sledge, Miss. He init...

baptistery

(Encyclopedia)baptistery băpˈtĭstrē [key], part of a church, or a separate building in connection with it, used for administering baptism. In the earliest examples it was merely a basin or pool set into the flo...

Ptolemy III

(Encyclopedia)Ptolemy III (Ptolemy Euergetes) yo͞oûrˈjĭtēz [key], d. 221 b.c., king of ancient Egypt (246–221 b.c.), of the Macedonian dynasty, son of Ptolemy II and the first Arsinoë. He plunged immediatel...