1000 Classical Characters Briefly Described

Who was Iphigenia? What did Cincinnatus do? A thousand gods, heroes and tyrants of the classical world, each explained in the time it takes to read a text message.

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Abdera

A city of Thrace, at the mouth of the Nestus. Though Abdera was the birthplace of some famous men, among them Anaxarchus, Democritus, and Protagoras, yet the citizens of this place in general had such a reputation for stupidity that Cicero styles Rome, on account of the stupidity of the Senators, another Abdera (Ep. ad Att. 4, 16); and Juvenal calls Abdera itself "the native land of blockheads." Under the Romans Abdera became a free city, and continued so as late as the time of Pliny.

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