Lanciani, Rodolfo Amadeo, 1847?–1929, Italian archaeologist. He was an authority on the ancient topography of Ostia and Rome and discovered many important Roman antiquities. Lanciani was made ...

Tiber, Ital. Tevere, Latin Tiberis, river, 251 mi (404 km) long, rising in the Etruscan Apennines, central Italy. It flows generally S across Tuscany, Umbria, and N Latium, then SW through Rom...

Urban II, c.1042–1099, pope (1088–99), a Frenchman named Odo (or Eudes) of Lagery; successor of Victor III. He studied at Reims and became a monk at Cluny. He went to Rome, as prior of Cluny, ...

Porifera [Lat.,=pore bearer], animal phylum consisting of the organisms commonly called sponges. It is the only phylum of the animal subkingdom Parazoa and represents the least evolutionarily ...

Roman roads, ancient system of highways linking Rome with its provinces. Their primary purpose was military, but they also were of great commercial importance and brought the distant provinces...

Lighthouse, towerlike structure erected to give guidance and warning to ships and aircraft by either visible or radioelectrical means. Lighthouses were long built to conform in structure to th...

Raphael Santi or Raphael Sanzio, Ital. Raffaello Santi or Raffaello Sanzio, 1483–1520, major Italian Renaissance painter, b. Urbino. In Raphael's work is the clearest expression of the exquisi...

Cardinal [Lat.,=attached to and thus belonging to the hinge], in the Roman Catholic Church, a member of the highest body of the church. The sacred college of cardinals of the Holy Roman Church...

Roman architecture, structures produced by the ancient Romans. The origins of Roman architecture can be traced to the Etruscans, who migrated from Asia Minor to Italy in the 12th cent. B.C. Wh...

Arthropoda [Gr.,=jointed feet], largest and most diverse animal phylum. The arthropods include crustaceans, insects, centipedes, millipedes, symphylans, pauropodans, and the extinct trilobites...