Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Euric yo͝orˈĭk [key], d. c.484, king of the Visigoths (466–c.484), brother and successor of Theodoric II. He made Toulouse his capital and under him the Visigothic kingdom reached its greatest ex...

(Encyclopedia) Constance, 1154–98, Holy Roman empress, wife of Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI; daughter of King Roger II of Sicily. She was named heiress of Sicily by her nephew King William II. On his death, however...

(Encyclopedia) John VIII, d. 882, pope (872–82), a Roman; successor of Adrian II. John strenuously opposed the activities of St. Ignatius of Constantinople in Bulgaria. When Ignatius died, John recognized Photius ...

(Encyclopedia) Bela IV bāˈlə, bēˈlə [key], 1206–70, king of Hungary (1235–70), son and successor of Andrew II. He tried to curtail the power of the magnates and set out to recover the crownlands his father...

(Encyclopedia) Louis III, c.863–882, French king, son of King Louis II. He became joint ruler with his brother Carloman on the death of Louis II (879), despite the attempts of Louis the Younger to become French ki...

(Encyclopedia) Augusta ougo͞oˈstä [key], city, E Sicily, Italy, on an island (formerly a peninsula) in the Ionian Sea, connected by bridge with the Sicilian mainland. It is a leading ...

(Encyclopedia) Philadelphia, name of several ancient cities. One was in Lydia, W Asia Minor (now W Turkey). At the foot of Mt. Tmolus and near the location of modern Alaşehir, it was founded in the 2d cent. b.c. by...

(Encyclopedia) Mortimer, Roger de, 4th earl of March and 2d earl of Ulster, 1374–98, English nobleman. He succeeded (1381) his father, Edmund de Mortimer, 3d earl of March, and was brought up as a royal ward. In 1...

(Encyclopedia) Cornaro, Caterina kätārēˈnä kōrnäˈrō [key], 1454–1510, queen of Cyprus. A celebrated Venetian beauty, she was married in 1472 to James II of Cyprus, who was eager to secure Venetian support...

(Encyclopedia) flamethrower, mechanism for shooting a burning stream of liquid or semiliquid fuel at enemy troops or positions. Primitive types of flamethrowers, consisting of hollow tubes filled with burning coals,...