Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Ituraea

(Encyclopedia)Ituraea ĭtyo͝orēˈə [key], ancient country on the northern border of Palestine. According to tradition, Jetur, the son of Ishmael, was its founder. Ancient geographers are not agreed as to the exa...

Fustel de Coulanges, Numa Denis

(Encyclopedia)Fustel de Coulanges, Numa Denis nümäˈ dənēˈ füstĕlˈ də ko͞oläNzhˈ [key], 1830–89, French historian. His masterly study, La Cité antique (1864, tr. The Ancient City, 1874), stressed the...

Melun

(Encyclopedia)Melun məlöNˈ [key], town (1990 pop. 36,489), capital of Seine-et-Marne dept., N central France, SE of Paris. It is an important industrial center where automobile bodies, airplane engines, leather ...

Lombard League

(Encyclopedia)Lombard League, an alliance formed in 1167 among the communes of Lombardy to resist Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I when he attempted to assert his imperial authority in Lombardy. Previously the commun...

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...

Luxeuil

(Encyclopedia)Luxeuil lüksöˈyə [key], former abbey, E France, at the present-day town of Luxeuil-les-Bains. It was founded c.590 by St. Columban on the site of the Roman town Luxovium, destroyed (451) by Attila...

Livia Drusilla

(Encyclopedia)Livia Drusilla lĭvˈēə dro͞osĭlˈə [key], c.55 b.c.–a.d. 29, Roman matron; mother of the Roman emperor Tiberius. She first married Tiberius Claudius Nero. Tiberius was his son. In 38 b.c., Aug...

Kyrie eleison

(Encyclopedia)Kyrie eleison kĭrˈēāˌ əlāˈēsŏnˌ, –sən [key] [Gr.,=Lord, have mercy], in the Roman Catholic Church, prayer of the Mass coming after the introit, the only ordinary part of the traditional ...

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...

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...