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siege

(Encyclopedia)siege, assault against a city or fortress with the purpose of capturing it. The history of siegecraft parallels the development of fortification and, later, artillery. In early times battering rams an...

Ptolemy I

(Encyclopedia)Ptolemy I (Ptolemy Soter) tŏlˈəmē sōˈtər [key], d. 284 b.c., king of ancient Egypt, the first ruler of the Macedonian dynasty (or Lagid dynasty), son of a Macedonian named Lagus. He was one of ...

strategy and tactics

(Encyclopedia)strategy and tactics, in warfare, related terms referring, respectively, to large-scale and small-scale planning to achieve military success. Strategy may be defined as the general scheme of the condu...

colon cancer

(Encyclopedia)colon cancer, cancer of any part of the colon (often called the large intestine). Colon cancer is the second most common cancer diagnosed in the United States. Epidemiological evidence has shown that ...

food adulteration

(Encyclopedia)food adulteration, act of intentionally debasing the quality of food offered for sale either by the admixture or substitution of inferior substances or by the removal of some valuable ingredient. The ...

aggression

(Encyclopedia)aggression, a form of behavior characterized by physical or verbal attack. It may appear either appropriate and self-protective, even constructive, as in healthy self-assertiveness, or inappropriate a...

sulfate

(Encyclopedia)sulfate, chemical compound containing the sulfate (SO4) radical. Sulfates are salts or esters of sulfuric acid, H2SO4, formed by replacing one or both of the hydrogens with a metal (e.g., sodium) or a...

Santayana, George

(Encyclopedia)Santayana, George säntäyäˈnä [key], 1863–1952, American philosopher and poet, b. Madrid, Spain. Santayana's philosophic stance has been given the apparently opposite descriptions of materiali...

horse

(Encyclopedia)CE5 General anatomy of a horse horse, hoofed, herbivorous mammal now represented by a single extant genus, Equus. The term horse commonly refers only to the domestic Equus caballus and to the wild...

Du Guesclin, Bertrand

(Encyclopedia)Du Guesclin, Bertrand bĕrträNˈ dü gĕklăNˈ [key], c.1320–80, constable of France (1370–80), greatest French soldier of his time. A Breton, he initially served Charles of Blois in the War of ...