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Word of the Day

perforce 

adverb

formal 

used to express necessity or inevitability: amateurs, perforce, have to settle for less expensive solutions. 

ORIGIN 

Middle English: from Old French par force ‘by force’.

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The columns in the façade of the Palau de la Generalitat (the seat of the Government of Catalonia) in Barcelona come from Troy, the ancient Greek city in modern-day Turkey.

In the 2nd century AD, between 45 and 50 columns were sculpted in Troy and taken to Tarraco (nowadays called Tarragona), to prepare the city for the stay of the Roman emperror Hadrian. The Trojan columns were used for the city’s provincial forum, probably in the temple to Augustus.

After the fall of the Roman empire, many of those columns disappeared, but many others were reused to build a church in the area of Sant Pere Sescelades a few kilometres north of Tarraco, which doesn’t exit anymore.

In the 16th century, the Palau de la Generalitat was being reformed and its architect asked for 4 of those columns. These four huge columns were taken by sea to Barcelona, and since then have been at the entrance of the building.

In Tarragona, some other Trojan columns can still be seen in the archaeological area, where the Forum used to be, and parts of columns can be seen as decorative elements of houses or used as flower-beds.

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Word of the Day

satrap

noun 

a provincial governor in the ancient Persian empire. 

• any subordinate or local ruler. 

ORIGIN 

late Middle English: from Old French satrape or Latin satrapa, based on Old Persian kšathra-pāvan ‘country-protector’.

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Word of the Day

Omnicide

Omnicide is the destruction of all life, or all human life, as a result of human activity. The term originated during the Cold War to refer to the threat of nuclear annihilation. More recently, it has been used to describe the risk of other man-made disasters, such as climate change.

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Word of the Day

Greek chorus

A Greek chorus (Greek: χορός, translit. chorós) in the context of ancient Greek tragedy, comedy, satyr plays, is a homogeneous group of performers, who comment with a collective voice on the action of the scene they appear in, or provide necessary insight into action which has taken place offstage. Historically, the chorus consisted of between 12 and 50 players, who variously danced, sang or spoke their lines in unison, and sometimes wore masks

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Word of the Day

phrontistery

noun

: a place for thinking or study

Etymology

Greek phrontistērion, from phrontistēs philosopher, deep thinker, person with intellectual pretensions, from phrontizein to reflect, take thought, from phrontid-, phrontis reflection, thought; akin to Greek phren-, phrēn diaphragm, mind

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Word of the Day

Thalassocracy

A thalassocracy or thalattocracy, sometimes also maritime empire, is a state with primarily maritime realms, an empire at sea, or a seaborne empire. Traditional thalassocracies seldom dominate interiors, even in their home territories. Examples of this were the Phoenician states of Tyre, Sidon and Carthage; the Italian maritime republics of Venice and Genoa of the Mediterranean; the Chola Empire of Tamil Nadu in India; the Omani Empire of Arabia; and the empires of Srivijaya and Majapahit in Maritime Southeast Asia. Thalassocracies can thus be distinguished from traditional empires, where a state's territories, though possibly linked principally or solely by the sea lanes, generally extend into mainland interiors in a tellurocracy ("land-based hegemony").

The term thalassocracy can also simply refer to naval supremacy, in either military or commercial senses. The Ancient Greeks first used the word thalassocracy to describe the government of the Minoan civilization, whose power depended on its navy. Herodotus distinguished sea-power from land-power and spoke of the need to counter the Phoenician thalassocracy by developing a Greek "empire of the sea".

Its realization and ideological construct is sometimes called maritimism (cf. Pluricontinentalism or Atlanticism), contrasting continentalism (cf. Eurasianism).

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Word of the Day

pertness 

noun 

1 the quality of being attractively neat and jaunty. 

2 impudence; cheek.

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Word of the Day

Praefectus castrorum

The praefectus castrorum ("camp prefect") was, in the Roman army of the early Empire, the third most senior staff officer of the Roman legion after the legate (legatus) and the senior military tribune (tribunus laticlavius), both of whom were from the senatorial class. The praefectus castrorum was a quartermaster responsible for military logistics and requisition (training, equipment procurement and maintenance, and construction of the camp, etc.) but could command the legion whenever the senior commanders were absent. The post was usually held by a soldier promoted from the centurionate, having already served as a chief centurion (primus pilus) of a legion, and was therefore open to ordinary, plebeian citizens. Prefects of this rank, for example Sextus Vibius Gallus, were awarded prizes (dona) to mark their achievements.

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Top spires of the Sagrada Família basilica in Barcelona, Catalonia.

Photo: Basílica Sagrada Família/Pep Daudé (x)

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Snoopy's creator Charles Schulz and the real Snoopy.

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Claudia Keep

[anexceptionallysimpletheory]

Word of the Day

tritagonist

noun 

the person who is third in importance, after the protagonist and deuteragonist, in an ancient Greek drama. 

ORIGIN 

late 19th century: from Greek tritagōnistēs, from tritos ‘third’ + agōnistēs ‘actor’.