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Caligula
Caligula , AD 12-AD 41, Roman emperor (AD 37-AD 41); son of Germanicus Caesar and Agrippina the Elder . His real name was Caius Caesar Germanicus. As a small child, he wore military boots, whence his nickname [ caligula =little boot]. On the death of Tiberius the army helped make Caligula emper...
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Agrippina the Elder
Agrippina the Elder , d. AD 33, Roman matron; daughter of Agrippa and Julia and granddaughter of Augustus. She was the wife of Germanicus Caesar and accompanied him on his provincial duties. After her husband's death (AD 19), she accused Tiberius of having Germanicus poisoned, and thereafter she...
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Anzio
Anzio , Lat. Antium, town (1991 pop. 33,497), in Latium, central Italy, on the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is a seaside resort with a fishing industry. A Volscian town, it was captured by Rome in 341 BC and became a favorite resort of the Romans. Nero and Caligula were born there; among the ruins of Nero's...
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Herod
Herod dynasty reigning in Palestine at the time of Jesus. As a dynasty the Herods depended largely on the power of Rome. They are usually blamed for the state of virtual anarchy in Palestine at the beginning of the Christian era.
Antipater (fl. c.65 BC) was founder of the family fortune. He ...
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Claudius I
Claudius I (Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus) , 10 BC-AD 54, Roman emperor (AD 41-AD 54), son of Nero Claudius Drusus Germanicus and thus nephew of Tiberius . When Caligula was murdered (AD 41), the soldiers found Claudius, who had been of little importance, hiding in abject terror behi...
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Philo
Philo or Philo Judaeus [Lat.,=Philo the Jew], c.20 BC-c.AD 50, Alexandrian Jewish philosopher. His writings have had an enormous influence on both Jewish and Christian thought, and particularly upon the Alexandrian theologians Clement and Origen. All that is known of his life is that he was sen...
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Tiberius
Tiberius (Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus) , 42 BC-AD 37, second Roman emperor (AD 14-AD 37). He was the son of Tiberius Claudius Nero and Livia Drusilla and was originally named Tiberius Claudius Nero. He campaigned (20 BC) in Armenia, became (19 BC) governor of Transalpine Gaul, and aided (12 ...
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Saint Peter's Church
Saint Peter's Church Vatican City, principal and one of the largest churches of the Christian world. The present structure was built mainly between 1506 and 1626 on the original site of the Vatican cemetery and an early shrine to St. Peter . In the 4th cent. Emperor Constantine built the first chu...
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Albert Camus
Albert Camus , 1913-60, French writer, b. Algiers. Camus was one of the most important authors and thinkers of the 20th cent. While a student at the Univ. of Algiers, he formed a theater group and adapted, directed, and acted in plays. He became active in social reform and was briefly a member of th...
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circus
circus [Lat.,=ring, circle], historically, the arena associated with the horse and chariot races and athletic contests known in ancient Rome as the Circensian games. The Roman circus was a round or oval structure with tiers of seats for spectators, enclosing a space in which the races, games, and g...
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