Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Taxila tăkˈsĭlŭ [key], archaeological site of three successive cities, near Rawalpindi, Pakistan. There between the 7th cent. b.c. and the 7th cent. a.d. was a flourishing city, famous as an ancie...

(Encyclopedia) Plataea plətēˈə [key], ancient city of Greece, in S Boeotia (now Voiotía), on the slope of Mt. Cithaeron (Kithairón). Plataea had voluntarily passed from Theban to Athenian protection before the...

(Encyclopedia) Spinello di Luca Spinelli spēnĕlˈlō dē lo͞oˈkä spēnĕlˈlē [key], c.1346–1410, Italian painter, usually called Spinello Aretino from his birthplace, Arezzo. He was a leading exponent of th...

(Encyclopedia) Abbott and Costello kŏstĕlˈō [key], American comedy team of William Alexander “Bud” Abbott, 1895–1974, b. Asbury Park, N.J., and Lou Costello, 1906–59, b. Pate...

(Encyclopedia) Gordius gôrˈdēəs [key], in Greek mythology, king of Phrygia. An oracle had told the Phrygians that the king who would put an end to their troubles was approaching in an oxcart, and, thus, when Gor...

(Encyclopedia) Haley, Alex (Alexander Murray Palmer Haley), 1921–92, American writer, b. Ithaca, N.Y. Haley was for a time one of the most famous writers in the United States as the author of Roots: The Saga of an...

(Encyclopedia) Dampier, William dămˈpēr [key], 1651–1715, English explorer, buccaneer, hydrographer, and naturalist. He fought (1673) in the Dutch War, managed a plantation in Jamaica (1674), and then worked wi...

(Encyclopedia) Cossa, Baldassare bäldäs-säˈrā kôsˈsä [key], c.1370–1419, Neapolitan churchman, antipope (1410–15; see Schism, Great) with the name John XXIII. He had a military career before entering the...

(Encyclopedia) Tyre tīr [key], ancient city of Phoenicia, S of Sidon. It is the present-day Sur in Lebanon, a small town on a peninsula jutting into the Mediterranean from the mainland of Syria S of Beirut. It was ...

(Encyclopedia) McHenry, James, 1753–1816, American political leader, b. Ireland. He emigrated to Philadelphia in 1771 and, after studying medicine under Benjamin Rush, served as a surgeon in the Continental Army i...