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Lucretius

(Encyclopedia)Lucretius (Titus Lucretius Carus) lo͞okrēˈshəs [key], c.99 b.c.–c.55 b.c., Roman poet and philosopher. Little is known about his life. A chronicle of St. Jerome speaks of the loss of his reason ...

Catullus

(Encyclopedia)Catullus (Caius Valerius Catullus) kətŭlˈəs [key], 84? b.c.–54? b.c., Roman poet, b. Verona. Of a well-to-do family, he went c.62 b.c. to Rome. He fell deeply in love, probably with Clodia, sist...

Catulus

(Encyclopedia)Catulus kăchˈo͝oləs [key], family of ancient Rome, of the Lutatian gens. Caius Lutatius Catulus was consul in 242 b.c. He won the great Roman naval victory over Carthage off the Aegates (modern Ae...

Grimald, Nicholas

(Encyclopedia)Grimald, Grimalde, or Grimoald, Nicholas all: grĭmˈôld [key], 1519?–1562?, English poet. He contributed 40 poems to the first edition (1557) of Tottel's miscellany, of which “A Funeral Song upo...

oratory

(Encyclopedia)oratory, the art of swaying an audience by eloquent speech. In ancient Greece and Rome oratory was included under the term rhetoric, which meant the art of composing as well as delivering a speech. Or...

Aeschines

(Encyclopedia)Aeschines ĕˈskĭnēz [key], c.390–314? b.c., Athenian orator, rival of Demosthenes. Aeschines rose from humble circumstances and became powerful in politics because of his oratorical gifts. At fir...

Macaulay, Thomas Babington, 1st Baron

(Encyclopedia)Macaulay, Thomas Babington, 1st Baron, 1800–1859, English historian and author, b. Leicestershire, educated at Cambridge. After the success of his essay on Milton in the Edinburgh Review (Aug., 1825...

Pliny the Elder

(Encyclopedia)Pliny the Elder (Caius Plinius Secundus) plĭˈnē [key], c.a.d. 23–a.d. 79, Roman naturalist, b. Cisalpine Gaul. He was a friend and fellow military officer of Vespasian, becoming eventually an arm...

Valla, Lorenzo

(Encyclopedia)Valla, Lorenzo lōrānˈtsō välˈlä [key], c.1407–57, Italian humanist. Valla knew Greek and Latin well and was chosen by Pope Nicholas V to translate Herodotus and Thucydides into Latin. From hi...

Augustus

(Encyclopedia)Augustus ôgŭsˈtəs, əgŭsˈ– [key], 63 b.c.–a.d. 14, first Roman emperor, a grandson of the sister of Julius Caesar. Named at first Caius Octavius, he became on adoption by the Julian gens (44...
 

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