Monday, November 29, 2004

Appian Of Alexandria

In addition to a lost autobiography, Appian wrote in Greek a Romaica,

Saturday, November 27, 2004

Leitrim

Irish  Liatroim (Gray Ridge)  county in the province of Connaught (Connacht), Ireland. With an area of 589 square miles (1,525 square km), it is bounded on the north by County Donegal, on the east by Northern Ireland and Cavan, on the south by Longford, and on the west by Roscommon and Sligo. The southern part of the county is a lowland covered by glacial drifts; most of it is used as farmland, though there are peat bogs

Thursday, November 25, 2004

Shilling

Former English (and British) coin, nominally valued at one-twentieth of a pound sterling, or 12 pence. A silver coin of 12 pence, called a teston, or testoon, was first struck in 1504, bearing a profile likeness of Henry VII and engraved by Alexander Bruchsal. This coin was continued by Henry VIII and was renamed the shilling during the succeeding reign of Edward VI. (The direct origin

Monday, November 22, 2004

Cartland, Dame Barbara

Following the death of her father in World War I, Cartland moved with her family to London. There she began contributing to the Daily Express newspaper, receiving instruction in writing from its proprietor,

Sunday, November 21, 2004

Tsimshian

Also spelled  Chimmesyan,   Indians of the North Pacific Coast of North America, inhabiting the mainland and islands around the Skeena and Nass rivers and Milbanke Sound in what is now British Columbia and Alaska. They speak any of three Tsimshian dialects: Niska, spoken along the Nass River; coastal Tsimshian, along the lower Skeena and the coast; and Kitksan (or Gitksan), along the upper Skeena.

Friday, November 19, 2004

Hystaspes

Also called  Gushtasp  protector and follower of the Iranian prophet Zoroaster. Son of Aurvataspa (Lohrasp) of the Naotara family, Hystaspes was a local ruler (kavi) in a country called in the Avesta (the Zoroastrian scripture) Aryana Vaejah, which may have been a Greater Chorasmian state abolished by the Achaemenid king Cyrus II the Great in the mid-6th century BC.

Tuesday, November 16, 2004

Pedestal

In Classical architecture, support or base for a column, statue, vase, or obelisk. Such a pedestal may be square, octagonal, or circular. The name is also given to the vertical members that divide the sections of a balustrade. A single pedestal may also support a group of columns, or colonnade. A pedestal is divided into three parts, from bottom to top: the plinth (or foot), the

Monday, November 15, 2004

Handicap

In sports and games, method of offsetting the varying abilities or characteristics of competitors in order to equalize their chances of winning. Handicapping takes many, often complicated, forms. In horse racing, a track official known as the handicapper may assign weights to horses according to their speed in previous performances; the presumed fastest horse

Saturday, November 13, 2004

Fishery

Harvesting of fish, shellfish, and sea mammals as a commercial enterprise, or the location or season of commercial fishing. Fisheries range from small family operations relying on traditional fishing methods to large corporations using large fleets and the most advanced technology. Small-scale fishery is ordinarily conducted in waters relatively close to

Wednesday, November 10, 2004

Beyer, Jinny

Beyer received a B.A. in speech and French from the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California, and an

Monday, November 08, 2004

Adams

Town (township), Berkshire county, northwestern Massachusetts, U.S. It lies at the foot of Mount Greylock (3,491 feet [1,064 metres]), on the Hoosic River, 15 miles (24 km) north of Pittsfield. The town of North Adams is 5 miles north. Founded by Quakers in 1766, it was known as East Hoosuck until 1778, when it was incorporated and renamed for the Revolutionary War hero Samuel Adams. Local limestone and marble

Saturday, November 06, 2004

Eckermann, Johann Peter

Reared

Thursday, November 04, 2004

Han

The han evolved during the 15th century when local daimyo gradually came into military and civil control of their own domains. In the warfare that took place among them at the end of the century, the size of the han gradually increased; many assumed the boundaries of one or

Wednesday, November 03, 2004

Middot

(Hebrew: “measure,” or “norms”), in Jewish hermeneutics or biblical interpretation, methods or principles used to explicate the meaning of biblical words or passages to meet the exigencies of new situations. Though the rules, or norms, were probably developing in early Hellenistic Judaism, the first known middot were compiled by Rabbi Hillel in the 1st century BC. Following

Monday, November 01, 2004

Siddons, Sarah

She was the eldest of 12 children of Roger and Sarah Kemble, who led a troupe of traveling actors (and were progenitors of a noted family of actors to a third generation, including a famous granddaughter, Fanny Kemble). Through the special care of her mother in sending