The story of the persecution of the Jews over many centuries is only too familiar, though for generations they practiced nonviolence toward their persecutors.
For many centuries, it was only feasible to employ local grain crops for liquor production, and, in this way, the basic characteristics of the local distilled beverage were established.
Although Umar Khayyam's Rubā'iyyāt have been admired in the Persian speaking world for many centuries, they have only been known in the West since the mid 19th century, when Edward FitzGerald rendered the Rubā'iyyāt into English.
The balances and restraints that hold us in check are delicate: they took many centuries to construct but would take only moments to smash.
Whether in essays by political observers or in remarks by Communist Party leaders, references to "meritocracy" like Zhang's inevitably call upon associations with China's fabled examination system, broadly instituted in the 7th century A.D. and liquidated only many centuries later, in 1905.
The Egyptians devised a tool resembling the letter E, from which a plumb line was suspended from the upper outboard part of the E. When the tool was placed against a wall, the wall was determined to be vertical when the string just touched the lower outboard part of the E. Oddly, this useful tool was apparently forgotten for many centuries and has reappeared only in modern times.
In the west the Franks of northern France had become romanized, and the French-German language border had assumed approximately its present location; in the east, on the other hand, German began to spread into Slavic territory, a process that was to continue for many centuries and to be reversed only at the end of World War II.
The European renaissance many centuries ago did not consist only in the recovery of classical learning in a Christian context but also in new alliances between the arts and sciences -- the figure of DaVinci is the irresistable model -- and between the cities and the schools.
Even the much more abundant iron, which overtook and replaced copper and bronze articles, was available only sparingly for many centuries.
The phrase "curiosity killed the cat" is only the beginning; for many centuries the church regarded it with deep suspicion.
