Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Segesta

(Encyclopedia)Segesta sĭjĕsˈtə [key], ancient city of NW Sicily. Traditionally called a Trojan colony, it was the longstanding and bitter rival of Selinus. Athens undertook (415–413 b.c.) the disastrous exped...

Sétif

(Encyclopedia)Sétif sātēfˈ [key], ancient Sitifis, city (1998 pop. 211,859), capital of Sétif prov., NE Algeria. It is the commercial center of a region where native textiles and phosphates are manufactured an...

Ostia

(Encyclopedia)Ostia ŏsˈtēə [key], ancient city of Italy, originally at the mouth of the Tiber but now inland as the Tiber delta has grown. It was founded (4th cent. b.c.) as a protection for Rome, then develope...

magnitude

(Encyclopedia)magnitude, in astronomy, measure of the brightness of a star or other celestial object. The stars cataloged by Ptolemy (2d cent. a.d.), all visible with the unaided eye, were ranked on a brightness sc...

Braddock, Edward

(Encyclopedia)Braddock, Edward, 1695–1755, British general in the French and Indian War (see under French and Indian Wars). Although he had seen little active campaigning before 1754, Braddock was reputed to have...

Baldwin I, Latin emperor of Constantinople

(Encyclopedia)Baldwin I bôlˈdwĭn [key], 1171–1205, 1st Latin emperor of Constantinople (1204–5). The count of Flanders (as Baldwin IX), he was a leader in the Fourth Crusade (see Crusades). After the seizure...

Vehmgericht

(Encyclopedia)Vehmgericht fāˈmĭk [key], in medieval Germany, a type of criminal tribunal. The inability of the Holy Roman emperors to exercise effective central control over their lands and the extensive feudal ...

Palestrina

(Encyclopedia)Palestrina pälāstrēˈnä [key], town (1991 pop. 15,802), in Latium, central Italy. It is an agricultural market. It is located on the site of Praeneste, a town founded by c.800 b.c. and later destr...

Cartimandua

(Encyclopedia)Cartimandua kärˌtĭmănˈjəwə [key], fl. 1st cent. a.d., British queen of the Brigantes. Ruler of the largest and most powerful tribe in Roman Britain (inhabiting the area that is now Yorkshire), ...

Wood, Anthony

(Encyclopedia)Wood or à Wood, Anthony, 1632–95, English antiquary. His painstaking researches into the history of Oxford resulted in two great works, The History and Antiquities of the University of Oxford (in L...