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Scythia
Scythia , ancient region of Eurasia, extending from the Danube on the west to the borders of China on the east. The Scythians flourished from the 8th to the 4th cent. BC They spoke an Indo-Iranian language but had no system of writing. They were nomadic conquerors and skilled horsemen. They seem t...
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Pontus
Pontus ancient country, NE Asia Minor (now Turkey), on the Black Sea coast. On its inland side were Cappadocia and W Armenia. It was not significantly penetrated by Persian or Hellenic civilization. In the 4th cent. BC, Pontus was taken over by a Persian family, profiting by the breakup of the empi...
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cuneiform
cuneiform [Lat.,=wedge-shaped], system of writing developed before the last centuries of the 4th millennium BC in the lower Tigris and Euphrates valley, probably by the Sumerians. The characters consist of arrangements of wedgelike strokes generally impressed with a stylus on wet clay tablets, wh...
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Cephisodotus
Cephisodotus , Gr. Kephisodotos, fl. 4th cent. BC, two Greek sculptors. The elder, the master and probably the father or the brother of Praxiteles, is noted for the statue Irene and Plutus [Peace and Wealth]. The original was erected on the Areopagus at Athens c.372 BC to celebrate the victory o...
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Anatolian languages
Anatolian languages , subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see The Indo-European Family of Languages , table); the term "Anatolian languages" is also used to refer to all languages, Indo-European and non-Indo-European, that were spoken in Anatolia in ancient times. The progress m...
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Samnites
Samnites , people of ancient Italy. Their country was Samnium . The Samnites were Oscan-speaking and therefore should be included among the Sabelli. The Tabula Agnonensis, a bronze tablet that carries an inscription engraved in the full Oscan alphabet, is an important record of the language. The ...
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Sanskrit
Sanskrit , language belonging to the Indic group of the Indo-Iranian subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Indo-Iranian ). Sanskrit was the classical standard language of ancient India, and some of the oldest surviving Indo-European documents are written in Sanskrit; however, Hitt...
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Palestrina
Palestrina , town (1991 pop. 15,802), in Latium, central Italy. It is an agricultural market. It is located on the site of Praeneste, a town founded by c.800 BC and later destroyed (and rebuilt) by the Romans in the 1st cent. BC Of note are the ruins of a temple of Fortuna (8th cent. BC), celebrated...
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Germans
Germans great ethnic complex of ancient Europe, a basic stock in the composition of the modern peoples of Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, N Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, N and central France, Lowland Scotland, and England. From archaeology it is clear...
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Achaean League
Achaean League , confederation of cities on the Gulf of Corinth. The First Achaean League, about which little is known, was formed presumably before the 5th cent. BC and lasted through the 4th cent. BC Its purpose was mutual protection against pirates. The Achaeans remained aloof from the wars in Gr...
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