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The History Channel - Encyclopedia Category: History and Culture > History Date & country: 02/12/2007, UK Words: 25833

Pflimlin, Pierre
(1907-2000) French politician. He entered parliament in 1946 as Social Catholic mayor of Strasbourg, France. He was a minister in several governments of the Fourth Republic. He became prime minister in May 1958...

Pforzheimer, Carl H(oward)
(1879-1957) US investment banker, book collector, and philanthropist. After graduating from New York City College (1896), he opened his own investment firm in 1901; by 1915 he was so successful that he moved to...

Phaedra
In Greek mythology, a Cretan, daughter of Minos and Pasiphae, married to Theseus of Athens. Her adulterous passion for her stepson, Hippolytus, led to her death. The story is told in plays by...

Phaedrus
(c. 15 BC-c.AD 50) Roman fable writer. Born in Macedonia, he came to Rome as a slave in the household of Emperor Augustus, where he learnt Latin and was later freed. The allusions in his 97 fables (modelled on those...

Phaestos
Ancient city in Crete, 40 km/25 mi southwest of Candia. Excavations have revealed remains of a magnificent palace dating from about 1875 BC, two palaces dating from 800 BC, and a smaller palace at...

Phaethon
In Greek mythology, the son of Helios, god of the Sun, and Clymene. He was allowed to drive his father's chariot for one day, but lost control of the horses and almost set the Earth on fire,...

Phalangist
Member of a Lebanese military organization (Phalanges Libanaises), since 1958 the political and military force of the Maronite Church in Lebanon. The Phalangists' unbending right-wing policies and...

phalanx
In ancient Greece and Macedonia, a battle formation using up to 16 lines of infantry with pikes about 4 m/13 ft long, protected to the sides and rear by cavalry. It was used by Philip II and...

Phalaris
(c. 570-c. 554 BC) Tyrant of the Greek colony of Acragas (Agrigento) in Sicily. He is said to have built a hollow bronze bull in which his victims were roasted alive. He was killed in a revolt. The Letters of Phalaris...

phallus
Model of the male sexual organ, used as a fertility symbol in ancient Greece, Rome, Anatolia, India, and many other parts of the world. In Hinduism it is called the lingam, and is used as the chief...

Phan Boi Chau
(1867-1940) Vietnamese nationalist. Together with Phan Chau Trinh, he dominated the anti-colonial movement in Vietnam in the early 20th century. In 1912, in China, he was involved in the establishment of the...

Phan Chau Trinh
(1872-1926) Vietnamese nationalist. Along with Phan Boi Chau, he was a leading figure in the anti-colonial movement in Vietnam in the early 20th century. In contrast to Phan Boi Chau's commitment to a...

Pharaoh
Hebrew form of the Egyptian royal title Per-'o. This term, meaning `great house`, was originally applied to the royal household, and after about 950 BC to the king. Pharaohs wore insignia of...

Pharisee
Member of a conservative Jewish sect that arose in Roman-occupied Palestine in the 2nd century BC in protest against all movements favouring compromise with Hellenistic culture. The Pharisees were...

Pharnaces I
(died c. 159 BC) King of Pontus, on the south shore of the Black Sea, from about 185 BC, grandfather of Mithridates VI. Forced by his enemies to surrender most of his conquests, he hung on to Sinope. ...

Pharnaces II
(63-47 BC) King of Pontus, on the south shore of the Black Sea, son of Mithridates VI. He allied himself with the Roman military leader Pompey against Julius Caesar in the civil war, but was defe ...

Pharos of Alexandria
In antiquity, a gigantic lighthouse at the entrance to the harbour of Alexandria, considered one of the Pharsalus, Battle of
Julius Caesar's final victory over Pompey's forces near Pharsalus (now Farsala) in Thessaly on 9 August 48 BC. After their comprehensive defeat at Pharsalus, the remainder of Pompey's force...

Phèdre
Tragedy by Jean Racine 1677. Adapted from the tragedy Hippolytus by Euripides, the play dramatizes the passion of Phaedra, wife of Theseus, king of Athens, for her stepson, Hippolytus, who is in...

Pheidippides
Athenian messenger, sent to Sparta 490 BC to announce the Persian landing at Marathon and request help. He allegedly reached Sparta on the second day after leaving Athens, having covered about 240...

Phelan, James (Duval)
(1861-1930) US mayor. A three-term mayor of San Francisco (1896-1902), he attacked the board of supervisors and helped create a new city charter. He worked to beautify the city and to secure an improved...

Phelan, John J
(1931) US financier. As chairman and chief executive officer, he led the New York Stock Exchange during a transformation period (1982-90), trying to follow generally conservative policies in an era of...

Phelps, Edmund Strother
(1952) US economist and theorist, and winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2006 for his work on the relationship between unemployment and inflation. First published in the late 1960s, his work...

Phelps, Samuel
(1804-1878) English actor and theatre manager. He and Thomas Greenwood produced over 30 Shakespearean plays at Sadler's Wells, London, 1844-62, marked by invention and scenic beauty. Phelps was successful in...

phenomena
In philosophy, a technical term used in Immanuel Kant's philosophy, describing things as they appear to us, rather than as they are in themselves. ...

phenomenalism
Philosophical position that argues that statements about objects can be reduced to statements about what is perceived or perceivable. Thus English philosopher John Stuart Mill defined material...

phenomenology
The philosophical perspective, founded by the German philosopher Edmund Husserl, that concentrates on phenomena as objects of perception (rather than as facts or occurrences that exist...

phenyldichlorarsine
Chemical weapon, introduced by the Germans in September 1917. One of the most toxic gases used in World War I, it acted against the lungs to cause pulmonary oedema; it also acted as a sneezing gas...

Phibunsongkhram, Luang
(1898-1964) Prime minister of Thailand (1938-44 and 1948-57). He became minister of defence (1934-38), and finally emerged as prime minister in 1938. He was pro-Japanese, and promoted a nationalistic...

Phidias (or Pheidias)
(lived mid-5th century BC) Greek sculptor. Active in Athens, he supervised the sculptural programme for the Parthenon (most of it is preserved in the British Museum, London, and known as...

Phigalia
Ancient city in Arcadia, southern Greece, with temples of Artemis and Dionysus. About 8 km/5 mi from Phigalia, on Mount Cotylium, is Bassae, where there is a well-preserved temple of Apollo, built...

philanthropy
Love felt by an individual towards humankind. It is expressed through acts of generosity and charity and seeks to promote the greater happiness and prosperity of humanity. The term derives from the...

Philby, H(arry) St John (Bridger)
(1885-1960) British explorer. As chief of the British political mission to central Arabia 1917-18, he was the first European to visit the southern provinces of Najd. He wrote The Empty Quarter 1933 and Forty...

Philby, Kim (Harold Adrian Russell)
(1912-1988) British intelligence officer from 1940 and Soviet agent from 1933. He was liaison officer in Washington 1949-51, when he was confirmed to be a double agent and asked to resign. Named in 1963 as...

Philip
(died 249 AD) Roman emperor AD 244-49. An Arabian by birth, he rose to high rank in the Roman army and obtained the throne by assassinating the emperor Gordianus III. Philip and his son were killed near Verona,...

Philip (I) the Handsome
(1478-1506) King of Castile from 1504, through his marriage in 1496 to Joanna the Mad (1479-1555). He was the son of the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I. ...

Philip II
(1165-1223) King of France from 1180. As part of his efforts to establish a strong monarchy and evict the English from their French possessions, he waged war in turn against the English kings Henry II, Richard...

Philip II of Macedon
(382-336 BC) King of Macedonia from 359 BC. He seized the throne from his nephew, for whom he was regent, defeated the Greek city states at the b ...

Philip IV
(1605-1665) King of Spain from 1621, when he succeeded his father Philip III. By the end of his reign, Spain had ceased to be a major world power as a result of milit ...

Philip IV the Fair
(1268-1314) King of France from 1285. He engaged in a feud with Pope Boniface VIII and made him a prisoner 1303. Clement V (1264-1314), elected pope through Philip's influence in 1305, moved the papal seat to...

Philip Neri, St
(1515-1595) Florentine cleric who organized the Congregation of the Oratory. He built the oratory over the Church of St Jerome, Rome, where prayer meetings were held and scenes from the Bible performed with...

Philip V
(1683-1746) King of Spain from 1700. A grandson of Louis XIV of France, he was the first Bourbon king of Spain. He was not recognized by the major European powers until 1713. See Philip V of Macedon
(237-179 BC) King of Macedonia from 220 BC. Philip succeeded his father Demetrius II and during the first three years of his reign made war on Aetolia. He fought two wars with Rome (the First Macedonian War...

Philip VI
(1293-1350) King of France from 1328, first of the house of Valois, elected by the barons on the death of his cousin, Charles IV. His claim was challenged by Edward III of England, who defe ...

Philip, `King`
(c. 1639-1676) American chief of the Wampanoag people. During the growing tension over Indian versus settlers' land rights, Philip was arrested and his people were disarmed 1671. Full-scale hostilities...

Philip, St
(lived 1st century AD) In the New Testament, one of the 12 apostles. He was an inhabitant of Bethsaida (northern Israel), and is said to have worked as a missionary in Anatolia. Feast day 3 May. ...

Philiphaugh
Village and battlefield in Scottish Borders unitary authority, Scotland, situated on Yarrow Water, 5 km/3 mi southwest of Selkirk. In 1645 James Montrose, 5th Earl of Montrose, and his Royalist army...

Philippa of Hainault
(c. 1314-1369) Daughter of William III Count of Holland; wife of King Edward III of England, whom she married in York Minster in 1328, and by whom she had 12 children (including Edward the Black Prince, Lionel...

Philippi
Ancient city of Macedonia founded by Philip of Macedon in 358 BC. Near Philippi, Mark Antony and Augustus defeated Brutus and Cassius in 42 BC, and the Roman colony was established. St Paul...

Philippics
Three speeches by the Athenian orator Demosthenes against Philip II of Macedon. Demosthenes attempted to persuade the Athenians to take forceful action against the Macedonians. The word...

Philippine Sea, Battle of
In World War II, decisive US naval victory June 1944 in the Philippine Sea, east of the islands; the last of the great carrier battles, it broke the back of the Japanese navy. ...

Philippines
Country in southeast Asia, on an archipelago of more than 7,000 islands west of the Pacific Ocean and south of the Southeast Asian mainland. Government The constitution was approved by plebiscite in...

Philippopolis
Ancient and medieval name for the Bulgarian city of Plovdiv. ...

Philippus, Marcus Julius
Full name of Philip the Arabian, Roman emperor. ...

Philips, Ambrose
(c. 1675-1749) English poet. He became involved in a quarrel with Alexander Pope over the merits of each other's pastoral poems, with Pope and others contriving to bring him into ridicule, and his poetry came to...

Philipson, David
(1862-1949) US rabbi. A widely published writer, he became a leader in American Reform Judaism. In 1889 he helped found the Central Conference of American Rabbis. An opponent of Zionism, he saw Judaism as a...

Philistine
Member of a seafaring people of non-Semitic origin who founded city-states on the Palestinian coastal plain in the 12th century BC, adopting a Semitic language and religion. They were at war...

Phillimore, Francis
Pseudonym of English writer Wilfred Meynell. ...

Phillips curve
Graph showing the relationship between percentage changes in wages and unemployment, and indicating that wages rise faster during periods of low unemployment as employers compete for labour. The...

Phillips, (Mark) Trevor
(1953) UK broadcaster, Labour Party politician, and chair of the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) from 2003. He has combined a media career with political campaigning on equality issues and voluntary...

Phillips, A(lban) W(illiam)
(1914-1975) New Zealand-born British economist, who developed the Phillips curve, a graph which appeared to show that there is a stable trade-off between inflation and unemployment which governments can...

Phillips, Caryl
(1958) West Indian-born novelist and playwright who moved to England in 1959. His work, which explores the conflicts of race and heritage and the themes of loss and persecution, includes the plays...

Phillips, David Graham
(1867-1911) US journalist and novelist. As a journalist on the New York World (1893-1902), he wrote editorials for publisher Joseph Pulitzer and went on special assignments, such as covering the...

Phillips, Duncan (Clinch)
(1886-1966) US art collector and museum founder. To display his art collection, in 1918 he founded the Phillips Memorial Gallery in Washington, DC (now the Phillips Collection) in honour of his father and...

Phillips, Irna
(1901-1973) US radio and television writer. She is credited with devising many of the now standard elements of soap operas. In 1949 she wrote the first televisi ...

Phillips, Jayne Anne
(1952) US writer. Her first novel Machine Dreams (1984) dealt vividly with the impact of the Vietnam War on small-town America. Other works include the short-story collection Fast Lanes (1987) and the...

Phillips, John
(1631-1706) English poet and author. His chief works, which are remarkable for licentious and coarse wit, pungent satire, and a generally controversial scurrility, are A Satyr against Hypocrites 1655;Montelion,...

Phillips, Stephen
(1864-1915) English poet and playwright. He came to prominence with the striking poem Christ in Hades 1897. With his Poems 1898 he established a reputation which lasted for ten years but was not sustained. He...

Phillips, William
(1878-1968) US diplomat. His long diplomatic career (1905-49) included assignments with both the Foreign Service and the State Department. He was ambassador to Italy (1936-40) and wartime ambassador to...

Phillpotts, Bertha Surtees
(1877-1932) English Scandinavian scholar and educationist. In 1913 she was appointed the first Lady Carlisle Fellow at Somerville College, Oxford, and in 1920 became principal of Westfield College, London. She...

Phillpotts, Eden
(1862-1960) English novelist and playwright. His numerous novels include Lying Prophets 1896, My Devon Year 1903, The American Prisoner 1904, The Secret Woman 1905, Portreeve 1906, Redcliff 1924, and From the...

Philo Judaeus
(lived 1st century AD) Jewish philosopher of Alexandria who in AD 40 undertook a mission to Caligula to protest against the emperor's claim to divine honours. In his writings Philo Judaeus attempts to reconcile Judaism...

Philo, Quintus Publilius
(lived 4th century BC) Roman general and the first plebeian consul 339 BC. In...

Philoctetes
In Greek mythology, a renowned archer to whom the hero Heracles bequeathed his poisoned arrows, and the slayer of the Trojan prince Paris before the fall of Troy. On his journey to the Trojan wars,...

Philopoemen
(c. 253-182 BC) Greek general of the Achaean League. He crushed the Spartans at Mantinea 208 BC and defeated Nabis, tyrant of Sparta, 192 BC. He was captured by the Messenians and executed. ...

philosopher's stone
Hypothetical substance that could transform base metals into gold. The search for the philosopher's stone was a main theme of alchemy in the Middle Ages. The s ...

Philosophes
The leading intellectuals of pre-revolutionary 18th-century France, including Condorcet, Diderot, J J Rousseau, and Voltaire. Their role in furthering the principles of the Enlightenment and...

philosophy
Systematic analysis and critical examination of fundamental problems such as the nature of reality, mind, perception, self, free will, causation, time and space, and moral judgements. Traditionally,...

philosophy of science
Study of scientific enquiry; see science, philosophy of. ...

Philostratus
(170-245) Greek sophist and rhetorician. After teaching at Athens he went to Rome, where he was requested by the empress Julia Domna to write the Life of Apollonius of Tyana. Other works certainly by...

Philoxenos
(lived 3rd century BC) Greek painter of the period of Alexander the Great. He worked very rapidly. His best-known painting was a depiction (now lost) of the Battle of Issus, in which Alexander defeated Darius. The...

Phips, William
(1651-1695) American colonial governor of Massachusetts, from 1692. In the French and Indian War (the North American branch of the Seven Years' War) he captured Port Royal, Canada, in 1690, but failed in his...

Phiz
(1815-1882) English artist who illustrated the greater part of the Pickwick Papers and other works by Charles Dickens. ...

Phlegethon
In Greek mythology, a river of fire encircling the underworld, or Hades, and emptying into Lake Acheron. ...

Phocaea
Ancient Greek port in Asia Minor, the northernmost city of Ionia, established c. 1000 BC. The city was one of the first to colonize the Western Mediterranean (settlers from Phocaea founded Massilia,...

Phocion
(c. 402-317 BC) Athenian general and statesman. An opponent of the orator Demosthenes, he advocated peace with Philip II of Macedon. Phocion was celebrated as an extempore orator. In 318, he was suspected of having...

Phocis
Region of ancient Greece, north of the gulf of Corinth and west of Boeotia. The Phocian War 355-346 BC ended in the conquest of Phocis by Philip II Macedon, who destroyed all its...

Phoebus and Phoebe
In Greek mythology, names of Apollo, the sun god, and Artemis, the moon goddess, respectively. ...

Phoenicia
Ancient Greek name for northern Canaan on the east coast of the Mediterranean. The Phoenician civilization flourished from about 1200 until the capture of Tyre by Alexander the Great in 332 BC....

Phoenix
In Greek legend, the son of Amyntor and Cleobule. He quarrelled with his father, having seduced his father's mistress, and fled to Phthia, where he became tutor to Achilles. ...

phoenix
In Egyptian and Oriental mythology, a sacred bird born from the sun. The Egyptians believed it was also connected with the soul and the obelisk. In China the phoenix signified good and its...

Phoenix Park Murders
The murder of two prominent members of the British government in Phoenix Park, Dublin, on 6 May 1882. The murders threatened the cooperation between the Liberal government and the Irish nationalist...

Phomvihane, Kaysone
(1920-1992) Laotian politician. In 1975 he became prime minister of the newly formed People's Democratic Republic of Laos and general secretary of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party. Initially he attempted to...

phoney war
The period in World War II between September 1939, when the Germans had occupied Poland, and April 1940, when the invasions of Denmark and Norway took place. During this time there were few signs of...

Phormion
(died c. 428 BC) Athenian admiral. Phormion held a command in the expedition against Samos 440 BC, and was sent to besiege Potidaea in Chalcidice 432 BC. He won two brilliant victories over vastly superior...

phosgene
Common name for carbonyl chloride, used as a chemical weapon in World War I. It is not immediately irritating when inhaled but causes an acute inflammation of the lungs; victims frequently felt...

phosphate analysis
Regular sampling and chemical analysis of phosphorus levels in the soil around archaeological sites in order to locate concentrations of human bone and excrement, and hence areas of human activity,...

Photius
(c. 820-891) Patriarch of Constantinople. During his reign the first dispute concerning the filioque occurred, marking the start of the division between the Eastern and Western churches. After holding high...

photofit
System aiding the identification of wanted persons. Witnesses select photographs of a single feature (hair, eyes, nose, mouth), their choices resulting in a composite likeness that is then...

Photorealism
Style of painting and sculpture popular in the late 1960s and 1970s, especially in the USA, characterized by intense, photographic realism and attention...