Databases
Start your research by typing the name of your significant individual into the following databases. Remember to check the 'Best Websites' section of Encyclopaedia Britannica whilst you are in the database.
To watch a tutorial on how to navigate Encyclopaedia Britannica, please click here.
- Britannica Schools This link opens in a new window
Britannica School covers the core subject areas of English, Maths, Science and History. Interactive lessons, activities, games, stories, worksheets, manipulatives, study guides and research tools.
- World Book Encyclopedia This link opens in a new window
Online version of the complete reference work along with dictionary, atlas, links, magazines, historical documents, audio, video, images, and 3D photograph
Resource Key
When accessing content use the numbers below to guide you:
LEVEL 1
brief, basic information laid out in an easy-to-read format. May use informal language. (Includes most news articles)
LEVEL 2
provides additional background information and further reading. Introduces some subject-specific language.
LEVEL 3
lengthy, detailed information. Frequently uses technical/subject-specific language. (Includes most analytical articles)
Websites
Type the name of your significant individual into the following websites.
- Encyclopedia.comEncyclopedia.com has more than 100 trusted sources, including encyclopedias, dictionaries, and thesauruses with facts, definitions, biographies, synonyms, pronunciation keys, word origins, and abbreviations.
- Biography.comEvery life has a story. Biography.com captures the most gripping, surprising and fascinating stories about famous people. The last fateful day. The decision that changed everything. The moment of cheating death. The biggest break. The defining opportunity. The most shattering failure. The unexpected connection. With over 7,000 biographies and daily features that highlight newsworthy, compelling and surprising points-of-view, we are the digital source for true stories about people that matter.
- The Famous PeopleThefamouspeople.com chronicles the life history of some of the world's most famous people and achievers. The biographies of these people feature the achievements and works that have influenced the course of history.
Read more at http://www.thefamouspeople.com/#7eLPQJJ0kJQGe5ih.99 - Your DictionaryAs a supplement to the over 7,000 biographies included in the Encyclopedia of World Biography, YourDictionary has a team of writers creating additional biographies on other notable current and historical figures. Our bios are great for school research projects or just for the casual reader who wants to learn more about the history of the world she lives in.
Greek Leaders
- History.com (2015). Alexander the Great. Retrieved 5 November, 2015, from http://www.history.com/topics/ancient-history/alexander-the-greatMacedonian king Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.) was born to parents King Philip II and Queen Olympia. Tutored by Aristotle, the prince took charge of the Companion Cavalry at age 18 and aided Philip in defeating the Athenian and Theban armies at Chaeronea. After the death of his father, Alexander garnered the support of the Macedonian Army and eliminated his enemies to become king and leader of the Corinthian League. Alexander went on to conquer Persia and Egypt, his kingdom ranging from the Mediterranean to the border of India. Just 32 when he died from malaria, he is regarded as one of history’s brilliant military leaders and most powerful rulers.
- Ancient History Encyclopedia. (2015). Alexander the Great. Retrieved 5 November, 2015, from http://www.ancient.eu/Alexander_the_Great/Alexander III of Macedon, known as Alexander the Great (21 July 356 BCE – 10 or 11 June 323 BCE), was the son of King Philip II of Macedon. He became king upon his father’s death in 336 BCE and went on to conquer most of the known world of his day. He is known as 'the great' both for his military genius and his diplomatic skills in handling the various populaces of the regions he conquered. He is further recognized for spreading Greek culture, language, and thought from Greece throughout Asia Minor, Egypt, and Mesopotamia to India and thus initiating the era of the "Hellenistic World".
- Spark Notes. (2015). Alexander the Great. Retrieved 5 November, 2015, from http://www.sparknotes.com/biography/alexander/In 356 B.C., Alexander was born into a state that was already in the midst of great change. His father, Philip II, who was largely responsible for these changes, had given Alexander a united Hellenic League over which to rule. As Macedonia had hitherto been looked upon as semi-barbaric, when Philip reorganized the state and conquered Athens and Thebes, the rest of the Greek city-states were reluctant to submit themselves to Macedonian rule. Indeed, though they would succeed in keeping Greece in line, neither Philip nor Alexander ever had the sincere loyalty of his citizens, for Greece could never get past its resentment of Macedonia. Moreover, it did not help the ruler's cause that republicanism–and even democracy–were being explored in the individual city-states. Aristotle must have had a difficult time educating the young prince Alexander to become a monarch when he likely doubted the justice of that position.
- Live Science. (2015). Alexander the Great: Facts, Biography & Accomplishments. Retrieved 5 November, 2015, from http://www.livescience.com/39997-alexander-the-great.htmlAlexander the Great was a king of Macedonia who conquered an empire that stretched from the Balkans to modern-day Pakistan.
- Cleisthenes (n.d.). Retrieved 5 November, 2015, from http://www.pbs.org/empires/thegreeks/htmlver/characters/f_cleisthenes.htmlCredited with having established democracy in Athens, Cleisthenes' reforms at the end of the 6th Century BC made possible the Golden Age of Athenian civilization that would follow in the 5th Century BC. Born into one of the city's foremost political dynasties, he became the unlikely champion of the people when they rebelled against tyranny.
- Ancient History Encyclopedia. (2009-2015). Draco's Law Code. Retrieved 5 November, 2015, from http://www.ancient.eu/Dracos_Law_Code/Draco was an aristocrat who in 7th century BCE Athens was handed the task of composing a new body of laws. We have no particular clues concerning his life and general biography and the only certainty is that, as an aristocrat and an educated man, he was in the right place at the right time in order to take his opportunity and legislate. During the infancy of the Athenian legal system Draco composed the city's first written law code with the aim of reducing arbitrary decisions of punishment and blood feuds between parties. Ultimately, though, the laws aided and legitimized the political power of the aristocracy and allowed them to consolidate their control of the land and poor. Famously harsh, the laws were ultimately replaced by Solon in 594 BCE.
- History.com (2015). Leonidas. Retrieved 5 November, 2015, from http://www.history.com/topics/ancient-history/leonidasLeonidas (c. 530-480 B.C.) was a king of the city-state of Sparta from about 490 B.C. until his death at the Battle of Thermopylae against the Persian army in 480 B.C. Although Leonidas lost the battle, his death at Thermopylae was seen as a heroic sacrifice because he sent most of his army away when he realized that the Persians had outmaneuvered him. Three hundred of his fellow Spartans stayed with him to fight and die. Almost everything that is known about Leonidas comes from the work of the Greek historian Herodotus (c. 484-c. 425 B.C.).
- History.com (2015). Pericles. Retrieved 5 November, 2015, from http://www.history.com/topics/ancient-history/periclesThe so-called golden age of Athenian culture flourished under the leadership of Pericles (495-429 B.C.), a brilliant general, orator, patron of the arts and politician—”the first citizen” of democratic Athens, according to the historian Thucydides. Pericles transformed his city’s alliances into an empire and graced its Acropolis with the famous Parthenon. His policies and strategies also set the stage for the devastating Peloponnesian War, which would embroil all Greece in the decades following his death.
- Ancient History Encyclopedia. (2009-2015). Pericles. Retrieved 5 November, 2015, from http://www.ancient.eu/pericles/Pericles (495–429 BCE, whose name means "surrounded by glory") was a prominent statesman, famous orator, and general (in Greek 'Strategos’) of Athens during the Golden Age of Athens. So profound was his influence that the period in which he led Athens has been called the 'Age of Pericles’.
- Pericles. (2015). Retrieved 5 November, 2015, from http://www.pbs.org/empires/thegreeks/htmlver/characters/f_pericles.htmlFor over 20 years, at Athens' height, the city was dominated by the aloof, 'Olympian' figure of Pericles. A magnificent orator with a reputation for scrupulous honesty, Pericles deepened and extended the reforms that Cleisthenes had set in motion some 50 years before.
- Plutarch. (2009). The Life of Solon [1914]. Retrieved 5 November, 2015, from http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Solon*.htmlDidymus the grammarian, in his reply to Asclepiades on Solon's tables of law, mentions a remark of one Philocles, in which it is stated that Solon's father was Euphorion, contrary to the opinion of all others who have written about Solon. For they all unite in saying that he was a son of Execestides, a man of moderate wealth and influence in the city, but a member of its foremost family, being descended from Codrus.
- Agathe.gr (n.d.). Solon the Lawgiver. Retrieved 5 November, 2015, from http://www.agathe.gr/democracy/solon_the_lawgiver.htmlBy the early 6th century B.C. social tensions in Athens had become acute, pitting the poorer citizens against rich and powerful landowners. Many citizens were reduced to the status of share croppers, and others had actually sold themselves into slavery to meet their debts. To resolve the crisis the Athenians appointed Solon as archon (magistrate) to serve as mediator and lawgiver. Plutarch and Aristotle describe in some detail the constitution devised by Solon, who then went into voluntary exile to avoid being pressured into amending this legislation.
- Themistocles (n.d.). Retrieved 5 November, 2015, from http://www.pbs.org/empires/thegreeks/htmlver/characters/f_themistocles.htmlThemistocles was an Athenian general and politician of superlative skill and foresight. He fought against the Persians at the Battle of Marathon while a young man, and distinguished himself as the savior of all Greece by persuading Athens to build a navy which went on to defeat Persia at Salamis in 480 bc.
- Plutarch. (2012). The Life of Themistocles [1914]. Retrieved 5 November, 2015, from http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Themistocles*.htmlIn the case of Themistocles, his family was too obscure to further his reputation. His father was Neocles, — no very conspicuous man at Athens, — a Phrearrhian by deme, of the tribe Leontis; and on his mother's side he was an alien, as her epitaph testifies:— "Abrotonon was I, and a woman of Thrace, yet I brought forth that great light of the Greeks, — know! 'twas Themistocles." Phanias, however, writes that the mother of Themistocles was not a Thracian, but a Carian woman, and that her name was not Abrotonon, but Euterpe. And Neanthes actually adds the name of her city in Caria, — Halicarnassus.