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Baalbek
Definition by Joshua J. Mark

Baalbek

Baalbek is an ancient Phoenician city located in what is now modern-day Lebanon, north of Beirut, in the Beqaa Valley. Inhabited as early as 9000 BCE, Baalbek grew into an important pilgrimage site in the ancient world for the worship of...
Sidon
Definition by Joshua J. Mark

Sidon

Sidon is the Greek name (meaning 'fishery') for the ancient Phoenician port city of Sidonia (also known as Saida) in what is, today, Lebannon (located about 25 miles south of Beirut). Along with the city of Tyre, Sidon was the most powerful...
Ashurbanipal
Definition by Joshua J. Mark

Ashurbanipal

Ashurbanipal (r. 668-627 BCE, also known as Assurbanipal) was the last of the great kings of Assyria. His name means "the god Ashur is creator of an heir" and he was the son of King Esarhaddon of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. In the Hebrew Tanakh...
Battle of Chaeronea
Definition by Donald L. Wasson

Battle of Chaeronea

The Battle of Chaeronea took place in 338 BCE on an early August morning outside the town of Chaeronea. Although for centuries the cities of Athens and Sparta dominated Greece, politically, militarily and economically, the Battle of Chaeronea...
Literature
Definition by Joshua J. Mark

Literature

Literature (from the Latin Littera meaning 'letters' and referring to an acquaintance with the written word) is the written work of a specific culture, sub-culture, religion, philosophy or the study of such written work which may appear in...
Ephesus
Definition by Joshua J. Mark

Ephesus

According legend, Ephesus (also Ephesos) was founded by the tribe of the Amazons, great female warriors. The name of the city is thought to have been derived from "Apasas", the name of a city in the "Kingdom of Arzawa" meaning the "city of...
Uat-Ur
Definition by Joshua J. Mark

Uat-Ur

Uat-Ur was the ancient Egyptian name for the Mediterranean Sea (also known as Wadj-Wer) and is translated as 'the Great Green'. Uat-Ur was understood as a living entity imbued with the spirit of the divine which, like all other aspects of...
Vesta
Definition by Joshua J. Mark

Vesta

Vesta was the goddess of the hearth, the home, and domestic life in the Roman religion (idenitified with the Greek goddess Hestia). She was the first-born of the titans Kronos and Rhea and, like the others, was swallowed by her father. When...
Vestal Virgin
Definition by Joshua J. Mark

Vestal Virgin

Vestal Virgins (Latin: Vestales) were the priestesses of the Roman goddess of the hearth, Vesta, in the state religion of ancient Rome. At varying times there were four to six priestesses employed. They were the only full-time clergy (collegia...
Sargon of Akkad
Definition by Joshua J. Mark

Sargon of Akkad

Sargon of Akkad (r. 2334 - 2279 BCE) was the king of the Akkadian Empire of Mesopotamia, the first multi-national empire in history, who united the disparate kingdoms of the region under a central authority. He is equally famous today as...
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