Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) quaestor kwĕsˈtôr [key], Roman magistrate, with responsibility for the treasury; in early times a quaestor also had judicial powers. At first there were two quaestors. Sulla named 20, and Caesar se...

(Encyclopedia) Lützow, Adolf, Freiherr von äˈdôlf frīˈhĕr fən lüˈtsō [key], 1782–1834, Prussian officer. He commanded (1813–14) a volunteer corps, the Black Troops (or Black Rifles), in the War of Lib...

(Encyclopedia) Nicopolis nĭkŏpˈəlĭs, nī– [key] [Gr.,=city of victory], ancient city, NW Greece, in Epirus. It was founded by Octavian (later Augustus) to celebrate the victory (31 b.c.) at Actium, which is n...

(Encyclopedia) Nola nôˈlä [key], town (1991 pop. 32,613), in Campania, S Italy. It is an agricultural center with food-processing industries. An Etruscan stronghold as early as 500 b.c., Nola flourished after pas...

(Encyclopedia) Shaw, Robert Gould, 1837–63, Union hero in the American Civil War, b. Boston. An ardent white abolitionist, he was colonel of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, the first body of black troops raised i...

(Encyclopedia) Gap gäp [key], city, capital of Hautes-Alpes dept., SE France, on the Luye River at the foot...

(Encyclopedia) Lepidus lĕpˈĭdəs [key], family of the ancient Roman patrician gens Aemilia. Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, d. 152 b.c., was a consul in 187 and 175 b.c., a censor in 179 b.c., and pontifex maximus [high...

(Encyclopedia) month, in chronology, the conventional period of a lunation, i.e., passage of the moon through all its phases. It is usually computed at approximately 29 or 30 days. For the computation of the month a...

(Encyclopedia) Larsson, Carl kärl lärˈsôn [key], 1853–1919, Swedish painter and illustrator. He was a popular and imaginative illustrator and was equally successful as a watercolorist. In watercolor he painted...

(Encyclopedia) Dumba, Konstantin Theodor kônstäntēnˈ tāˈōdôr do͝omˈbä [key], 1856–1947, Austro-Hungarian diplomat. As ambassador (1913–15) to the United States, he was involved with Franz von Papen an...