Stateira was a queen of ancient Persia who died about 400 BCE; wife of Artaxerxes II. She had a son, who became Artaxerxes III. She was a popular ruler, apparently because she talked to ordinary people, but did not get on well with her mother-in-law Parysatis, who eventually poisoned her.
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Aguntum was an ancient Roman site in what is now East Tirol, Austria (about 4km east of Lienz, the discoverer’s birthplace). The city was likely built as a mining and trading centre due to local supplies of iron, copper, zinc and gold.
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Mandeville is the capital and largest town in the parish of Manchester in Middlesex, Jamaica. It was laid out in 1816, and named after Viscount Mandeville, the eldest son of the Duke of Manchester, who was then governor of Jamaica.
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Auravictrix is Latin for ‘victory against the wind’ (named for the first Schütte-Lanz zeppelin flights in 1911). The Schütte-Lanz company was an early competitor of the more famous airships built by Ferdinand von Zeppelin.
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Name origin: Greek Naiad at Delphi who, to flee Apollo’s pursuit, threw (or transformed) herself into the sacred springs now bearing her name. The water from the springs bestowed the gifts of prophecy and poetry.
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Veritas is the name given to the Roman virtue of truthfulness, considered one of the main qualities any good Roman should possess, and the Goddess of Truth, daughter of Saturn. The Greek equivalent is Aletheia.
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Name origin: A region in north-east Italy named Veneto or the Venetia, which has Venice as its capital. Residents mostly speak Venetian as well as Italian, and there is a notable Venetian independence movement (Venetism).
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Name origin: Roman personification of prudence. Prudentia, whose attributes are a mirror and a snake, is frequently depicted as a pair with Justitia, the Roman goddess of Justice. The word “prudence” derives from the Latin prudentia meaning “foresight, sagacity”.
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Name origin: Greek god of love. In the earliest account, Eros is a primordial god, while later he is described as one of the children of Aphrodite and Ares and, with some of his siblings, was one of the Erotes, a group of winged love gods.
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The Pythia was the high priestess and oracle of the temple of Apollo at Delphi. Established by the 8th century BCE (though some sources date the shrine’s beginnings around 600 years farther back), the Pythia became pre-eminent by the 7th century BCE. Widely respected, the priestess continued to be consulted until the late 4th century CE.
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