Word: maida
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Italy. His surname derived from Telese -- from a Greek word meaning "to initiate to mysteries" -- a town in Italy's lower boot that had been partly destroyed by the Romans in 214 B.C. because its inhabitants were too friendly to Hannibal's Carthaginians. His family, however, was rooted in Maida, 65 miles northeast of the Strait of Messina, which separates Sicily from the rest of Italy. This is a craggy, nearly treeless countryside that has seen more than its share of history, good and bad. Maida was plundered frequently in pre-Christian times. The rebel slave Spartacus led his ragtag...