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Peloponnesian War

(Encyclopedia)Peloponnesian War pĕlˈəpənēˈzhən [key], 431–404 b.c., decisive struggle in ancient Greece between Athens and Sparta. It ruined Athens, at least for a time. The rivalry between Athens' maritim...

Agathon

(Encyclopedia)Agathon ăgˈəthŏn [key], c.450–c.400 b.c., Athenian tragedian. Plato's Symposium has as its scene the celebration of Agathon's first dramatic victory. Less than 40 lines of his work survive. ...

Cleon

(Encyclopedia)Cleon klēˈən [key], d. 422 b.c., Athenian political leader. The son of a tanner, he had little education; nevertheless, he was a gifted speaker. He began his political career with a series of relen...

Athens, city, Greece

(Encyclopedia)Athens ăthˈĭnz [key], Gr. Athínai, city (2021 urban agglomeration pop. 3,153,000), capital of Greece, E central Greece, on the plain of Attica, between the Kifisós an...

Aristophanes

(Encyclopedia)Aristophanes ărˌĭstŏfˈənēz [key], c.448 b.c.–c.388 b.c., Greek playwright, Athenian comic poet, greatest of the ancient writers of comedy. His plays, the only full extant samples of the Greek...

Constitution of Athens

(Encyclopedia)Constitution of Athens, treatise by Aristotle or a member of his school, written in the late 4th cent. b.c. It was lost until discovered on Egyptian papyrus in 1890. It is a history of the Athenian go...

Nicias

(Encyclopedia)Nicias nīˈsēəs, nĭshˈēəs [key], d. 413 b.c., Athenian political leader and general. After Pericles' death he emerged as the primary rival of Cleon and his war party. He was a moderate democrat...

Jelgava

(Encyclopedia)Jelgava yĕlˈgävä [key], also Yelgava, Ger. Mitau, city (2011 provisional pop. 59,449), in Latvia, on the Lielupe River. It is a major rail hub and a trade center for grain and timber. The city gre...

Abydos, ancient town of Phrygia

(Encyclopedia)Abydos, ancient town of Phrygia, Asia Minor, on the Asian side of the Hellespont opposite Sestos, in present-day Turkey. It was originally a Milesian colony. Near there Xerxes built his bridge of boat...

Hengist and Horsa

(Encyclopedia)Hengist and Horsa hĕngˈgĭst, hôrˈsə [key], names of two brothers who, according to tradition, led the Jutish invasion of Britain and founded the kingdom of Kent. Hengist would more properly be w...
 

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