The Order of St George was a military order instituted in Russia in 1769 by the Empress Catharine II as a reward of military achievements. It consisted of four classes to which a fifth, intended for non-commissioned officers and privates, was added in 1807.
The Oredr of St George is an order instituted in Bavaria by the Emperor Charles VII. (Charles Albert) in 1729, and reorganized by King Louis II in 1871. Since the re-organisation the order, which had previously been a mere decoration for the nobility, it devoted itself to such services as the care of the wounded on battlefields, etc.
The Order of St George is a Sicilian military order, instituted by Joseph Napoleon on the 24th of February, 1808, and remodelled by King Ferdinand IV in 1819. Research Order of St George
The Sicilian Vespers was the massacre of the French in Sicily on March 20th 1282. It was caused by a French soldier insulting a bride on her way to church, and resulted in the entire garrison of Charles of Anjou being annihilated within three days, putting an end to Angevin rule in Sicily. Research Sicilian Vespers
The Comisana (Lentinese, Red Head, Testa rossa, Faccia rossa) is a breed of sheep found in south-eastern Sicily. It is a diary breed with course to medium wool quality and a reddish-brown face. It originated from the Maltese and Sicilian breeds in the late 19th and early 20th century. The breed has semi-lop ears and is polled. Research Comisana
Abraham Duquesne (Marquis Duquesne) was a French admiral. He was born in 1610 at Dieppe and died in 1688. He took part in the defeat of the Spanish at Lerins Island in 1637 and again before Tarragona in 1641. In 1647 he commanded the expedition against Naples. In the Sicilian war he thrice defeated the combined fleets of Holland and Spain, under the renowned De Ruyter. After he had reduced Algiers and GenoaLouis XIV conferred upon him the fine estate of Bouchet, and made it a marquisate, with the title of Duquesne. He was a Protestant and the only person exempted from the banishment of his sect, occasioned by the repeal of the edict of Nantes. Research Abraham Duquesne
The Carthaginians were a powerful Phoenician people based in the city of Carthage. Carthage was the most famous city of Africa in antiquity, capital of a rich and powerful commercial republic, situated in the territory now belonging to Libya. Carthage was the latest of the Phoenician colonies in this district, and is supposed to have been founded by settlers from Tyre and from the neighbouring Utica about the middle of the 9th century BC. The story of Dido and the foundation of Carthage is mere legend or invention.
The history of Carthage falls naturally into three epochs. The first, from the foundation to 410 BC, comprises the rise and culmination of Carthaginian power; the second, from 410 to 265 BC, is the period of the wars with the Sicilian Greeks; the third, from 265 to 146 BC, the period of the wars with Rome, ending with the fall of Carthage.
The rise of Carthage may be attributed to the superiority of her site for commercial purposes, and the enterprise of her inhabitants, which soon acquired for her an ascendency over the earlier Tyrian colonies in the district, Utica, Tunis, Hippo, Septis, and Hadrumetum, Her relations with the native populations, Libyans and nomads, were those of a superior with inferior races. Some of them were directly subject to Carthage, others contributed large sums as tribute, and Libyans formed the main body of infantry as nomads of cavalry in the Carthaginian army. Besides these there were native Carthaginian colonies, small centres and supports for her great commercial system, sprinkled along the whole northern coast of Africa, from Cyrenaica on the east to the Straits of Gibraltar on the west.
In extending her commerce Carthage was naturally led to the conquest of the various islands which from their position might serve as entrepots for traffic with the northern shores of the Mediterranean. Sardinia was the first conquest of the Carthaginians, and its capital, Caralis, now Cagliari, was founded by them. Soon after they occupied Corsica, the Balearic, and many smaller islands in the Mediterranean. When the Persians under Xerxes invaded Greece the Carthaginians, who had already several settlements in the west of Sicily, co-operated by organizing a great expedition of 300,000 men against the Greek cities in Sicily. But the defeat of the Carthaginians at Himera by the Greeks under Gelon of Syracuse effectually checked their further progress (480 BC).
The war with the Greeks in Sicily was not renewed until 410. Hannibal, the son of Gisco, invaded Sicily, reduced first Selinus and Himera, and then Agrigentum. Syracuse itself was only saved a little later by a pestilence which enfeebled the army of Himiico (396). The struggle between the Greeks and the Carthaginians continued at intervals with varying success, its most remarkable events being the military successes of the Corinthian Timoleon (345-340) at Syracuse, and the invasion of the Carthaginian territory in Africa by Agathocles in 310 BC. After the death of Agathocles the Greeks called in Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, to their aid, but notwithstanding numerous defeats (277-275 BC), the Carthaginians seemed, after the departure of Pyrrhus, to have the conquest of all Sicily at length within their power. The intervention of the Romans was now invoked, and with their invasion in 264 BC, the third period of Carthaginian history begins.
The first Punic war in which Rome and Carthage contended for the dominion of Sicily, was prolonged for twenty-three years, from 264 to 241 BC, and ended, through the exhaustion of the resources of Carthage, in her expulsion from the island. The loss of Sicily led to the acquisition of Spain for Carthage, which was almost solely the work of Hamilcar and Hasdrubal. The second Punic war, arising out of incidents connected with the Carthaginian conquests in Spain, and conducted on the side of the Carthaginians by the genius of Hannibal, and distinguished by his great march on Rome and the victories of Lake Trasimene, Trebia, and Cannae, lasted seventeen years, from 218 to 201 BC, and after just missing the overthrow of Rome, ended in the complete humiliation of Carthage. The policy of Rome in encouraging the African enemies of Carthage occasioned the third Punic war, in which Rome was the aggressor. This war, begun in 150 BC, and ended in 146 BC, resulted in the total destruction of Carthage.
The constitution of Carthage, like her history, remains in many points obscure. The name of king occurs in the Greek accounts of it, but the monarchical constitution, as commonly understood, never appears to have existed in Carthage. The officers called kings by the Greeks were two in number, the heads of an oligarchical republic, and were otherwise called Suffetes, the original name being considered identical with the Hebrew Shofetim, judges. These officers were chosen from the principal families, and were elected annually. There was a senate of 300, and a smaller body of thirty chosen from the senate, sometimes another smaller council of ten. In its later ages the state was divided by bitter factions, and liable to violent popular tumults. After the destruction of Carthage her territory became the Roman province of Africa.
Twenty-four years after her fall an unsuccessful attempt was made to rebuild Carthage by Caius Gracchus. This was finally accomplished by Augustus, and Roman Carthage became one of the most important cities of the empire. It was taken and destroyed by the Arabs in 638. The religion of the Carthaginians was that of their Phoenician ancestors. They worshipped Moloch or Baal, to whom they supposedly offered human sacrifices; Melkart, the patron deity of Tyre; Astarte, the Phoenician Venus, and other deities, which were mostly propitiated by allegedly cruel or lascivious rites, though these accounts are most likely exagerated propaganda by enemies of the Carthaginians. Research Carthaginians
Don Pedro Calderon de la Barca was a Spanish dramatist. He was born in 1600 at Madrid, 1600 and died in 1681. Educated in the Jesuits' College, Madrid, and at Salamanca. Before his fourteenth year he had written his third play. Leaving Salamanca in 1625 he entered the army and served with distinction for ten years in Italy and the Netherlands. In 1656 he was recalled by Philip IV, who gave him the direction of the court entertainments. The next year he was made knight of the order of Santiago, and he served in 1640 in the campaign in Catalonia.
In 1651 he entered the clerical profession, and in 1653 obtained a chaplain's office in the archiepiscopal church at Toledo, but as this situation removed him too far from court, he received, in 1663, another at the king's courtchapel (being still allowed to hold the former); and at the same time a pension was assigned him from the Sicilian revenue. His fame greatly increased his income, as he was solicited by the principal cities of Spain to compose their autos sacramentales, for which he was liberally paid, and on which he specially prided himself.
Besides heroic comedies and historical plays, some of which merit the name of tragedies, Galderon has left ninety-five autos sacramentales, 200 loas (preludes), and 100 saynetes (farces). He wrote his last play in the eightieth year of his age. His smaller poems are now forgotten; but his plays have maintained their place on the stage even more than those of Lope de Vega. Their number amounts to 128. He wrote, however, many more, some of which were never published. Research Don Pedro Calderon de la Barca
Francesco Caraccioli was an Italian admiral. He was born about 1748 at Naples and died in 1799. In 1798 he entered the service of the Parthenopean Republic, and repelled, with a few vessels, an attempt of the Sicilian-English fleet to effect a landing. When Ruffo took Naples in 1799 Caraccioli was arrested, and, contrary to the terms of capitulation, was condemned to death, and hanged at the yard-arm of a Neapolitanfrigate, LordHoratio Nelson consenting to his murder. Research Francesco Caraccioli
Frank Capra was a Sicilian born Film director. He was born in 1897 at Palermo and died in 1991. His family moved to California when he was six, and he started work selling newspapers, playing the banjo, and doing other odd jobs. After studying chemical engineering he joined the army. Discharged he had other odd jobs until in 1922 he talked his way into directing a one- reeler, 'Fultah Fisher's Boarding House'. After learning about the film business, he became a joke writer for the Our Gang comedies and the comedian Harry Langdon. He directed some Langdon films and some two-reel comedies. His most renowned work as a director celebrated the decency and integrity of the common man as he combats corruption in high places, and he earned Oscars for the 1934 'It Happened One Night', the 1936 'Mr Deeds Goes to Town', and the 1938 'You Can't Take It With You'. His best known and most popular film was the 1947 'It's A Wonderful Life'. Research Frank Capra
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Order of St George
