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tonsure

(Encyclopedia)tonsure tŏnˈshər [key] [Lat.,=to shave], formerly, practice in some Christian churches of cutting some of the hair from the scalp of clerics. In the West the tonsure consisted of a circular patch o...

Persius

(Encyclopedia)Persius or Aulus Persius Flaccus pûrˈshēəs; ôlˈəs, flăkˈəs [key], a.d. 34–a.d. 62, Roman satirical poet, b. Etruria. A member of a distinguished family, he went to Rome in boyhood, was edu...

Nerva

(Encyclopedia)Nerva (Marcus Cocceius Nerva) nûrˈvə [key], c.a.d. 30–a.d. 98, Roman emperor (a.d. 96–a.d. 98). He had an honorable career as a statesman at Rome, and his reputation was blameless. At the death...

Vitruvius

(Encyclopedia)Vitruvius (Marcus Vitruvius Pollio) vĭtro͞oˈvēəs [key], fl. late 1st cent. b.c. and early 1st cent. a.d., Roman writer, engineer, and architect for the Emperor Augustus. In his one extant work, D...

Wace

(Encyclopedia)Wace wās [key], c.1100–1174, Norman-French poet of Jersey. King Henry II made him canon of Bayeux. His Roman de Brut (1155) is a long, rhymed chronicle of British history based on the Historia of G...

Wilfrid, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Wilfrid, Saint, 634–709?, English churchman, b. Northumbria, of noble parentage. He was educated at Lindisfarne and Canterbury. With Benedict Biscop he traveled to Lyons and Rome in 654; Wilfrid rem...

Worcester, Edward Somerset, 6th earl and 2d marquess of

(Encyclopedia)Worcester, Edward Somerset, 6th earl and 2d marquess of wo͝osˈtər [key], 1601?–1667, English soldier and inventor. Known as Lord Herbert after 1628, he received the title earl of Glamorgan in 164...

Steno, Nicolaus

(Encyclopedia)Steno, Nicolaus nēls stānˈsən [key], 1638–86, Danish anatomist, geologist, and Roman Catholic prelate. He lived principally in Copenhagen, Paris, and Florence. He investigated the heart, brain, ...

Adrian I, pope

(Encyclopedia)Adrian I, d. 795, pope (772–95), a Roman; successor of Stephen IV. At Adrian's urging, Charlemagne crossed the Alps and defeated the Lombard king, Desiderius, who had annexed papal territory. That d...

Watling Street

(Encyclopedia)Watling Street wŏtˈlĭng [key], important ancient road in England, built by the Romans in the course of their military occupation. It ran from London generally north to the intersection with the Fos...