Tarquin [Etruscan,=lord], in Roman tradition, an Etruscan family that ruled Rome. According to the historian Livy, when the rule of the Bacchiadae in Corinth was overthrown (c.657 B.C.) by the...

Holland, Philemon, 1552–1637, English translator and scholar. Educated at Cambridge, he became director of the free school in Coventry, where he also practiced medicine. He was the first Engli...

, 1921–1991, French singer and actor, b. Italy as Ivo Livi. His family settled in Marseille when he was an infant. He quit school at 11, held various manual-labor jobs, and was singing in loca...

López de Ayala, Pedro, 1332–1407, Spanish statesman, poet, and chronicler. As a royal official in Castile, he served Peter the Cruel, Henry II, John I, and Henry III, rising to become chancell...

Machiavelli, Niccolò, 1469–1527, Italian author and statesman, one of the outstanding figures of the Renaissance, b. Florence. A member of the impoverished branch of a distinguished family, he...

, 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 B.C.) Caius Julius Caesar Octavia...

Latin literature, the literature of ancient Rome and of that written in Latin in later eras.Very little remains of the ritualistic songs and the native poetry of the Romans and Latins before t...

Renaissance [Fr.,=rebirth], term used to describe the development of Western civilization that marked the transition from medieval to modern times. This article is concerned mainly with genera...

History, in its broadest sense, is the story of humanity's past. It also refers to the recording of that past. The diverse sources of history include books, newspapers, printed documents, pers...

Rome, Ital. Roma, city (1991 pop. 2,775,250), capital of Italy and see of the pope, whose residence, Vatican City, is a sovereign state within the city of Rome. Rome is also the capital of Lat...