Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Berenice or Berenike, city of ancient Egypt, on the Red Sea. Founded by Ptolemy II and named in his mother's honor, it commanded the trade with Arabia and India, flourishing from the 3d cent. b.c. to ...

(Encyclopedia) Salamis sălˈəmĭs [key], ancient city on Cyprus, once the principal city. St. Paul visited it on his first missionary journey (Acts 13.5). Excavations there revealed the ruins of a Greek theater; t...

(Encyclopedia) skiing, sport of sliding over snow on skis—long, narrow, flexible runners. Water skiing is a warm-weather sport in which a motor-propelled craft tows a skier through the water. Although its orig...

(Encyclopedia) Nemea nēˈmēə, nĭmēˈə [key], city of ancient Greece, in N Argolis. At the temple of Zeus were held the Nemean games, which from 573 b.c. were one of the four Panhellenic festivals; the games we...

(Encyclopedia) Colossus of Rhodes kəlŏsˈəs [key], large statue of Helios, the sun god, destroyed by an earthquake in antiquity. Consider one of the Seven Wonders of the World by the ancients, it was built in par...

(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) Tegea tēˈjēə [key], ancient city of Greece, SE Arcadia, in the Peloponnesus. From the middle of the 6th cent. b.c. until the Spartan defeat at the battle of Leuctra (371 b.c.), it was dominated by...

(Encyclopedia) Rostovtzeff, Michael Ivanovich rŏstŏvˈtsĕf [key], 1870–1952, American historian, b. Kiev, Ukraine. He studied at the Univ. of St. Petersburg where he was professor of Latin and of Roman history ...

(Encyclopedia) Khalkís kălˈsĭs [key], city (1991 pop. 51,646), capital of Évvoia (Euboea) prefecture, E Greece, on the island of Évvoia. Connected to the mainland by a bridge, the city is a trade center for lo...

(Encyclopedia) Thásos thāˈsŏs [key], island (1991 pop. 13,527), c.170 sq mi (440 sq km), NE Greece, in the Aegean Sea. Timber, olive oil, honey, wine, and lead-zinc ores are its chief products; boatbuilding, fis...