Word: romane
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Internationally, of course, this was old hat. Routinized agricultural taxation in China was well established by the Zhou dynasty (c. 1027-221 B.C.E.); the earliest Roman taxes, the portoria, were customs duties on imports and exports. The Athenians had a monthly poll tax, the metoikion, on foreigners (people whose parents were not both Athenian) of one drachma for men and half a drachma for women, while their contemporary Persians levied a tax called jizya on all non-Muslims living in Muslim-ruled areas. In 11th-century Britain, rising property taxes propelled Lady Godiva to ride the streets nude, inspiring popular...
...Gospel of Luke that describes Jesus' childhood visit to Jerusalem. Though he had been there before--Luke says his family was visiting "as usual" for Passover--the 12-year-old from Nazareth, 60 miles to the north, must still have been agog walking south down the grand new Roman street toward the Temple's lower entrance. A stretch of that road is visible today, just below the Western Wall, majestically wide but piled high on one side with huge blocks of stone that rained from above during one of the city's many destructions...
...innkeeper, Vermeer was the father of 15 children, a Roman Catholic-leaning Protestant and a home-towner who rarely left Delft. But this is about all we know; no character descriptions or other salient facts exist. In his short life - born in 1632, died in 1675 of unknown causes although his wife, Catharina, blamed "decay and decadence" - he was never particularly successful. It was not until 1866, when a radical French critic named Théophile Thoré wrote three articles about him, that the art world beyond Holland took much notice...
Accept that odd premise--Erdrich makes it seem marvelously plausible--and the novel's overarching theme becomes poignantly clear. From 1912 to 1996, Agnes, disguised as Damien and thus a sham as both man and priest, tries to bring Roman Catholicism to the Ojibwes of Little No Horse reservation on a lonely patch of North Dakota. These people have been deprived of their ancestral lands and hence the sustaining spirits of their culture; they are stalled between past and future. What help can a missionary from the conquering side bring them...
...likeness of her husband Amphitryon and so wins a night under the sheets with the loving wife. Over time this tale of unwitting adultery has been transformed into a farcical matter, one which has formed the basis for an impressive number of plays. Continuing a tradition started by the Roman playwright Plautus, the 20th century French dramatist Jean Giraudoux actually wrote a version entitled Amphitryon 38, counting his rendition as the 38th retelling of the myth...