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Possible definitions for villate

Pilate
Roman prefect of Judaea (AD 26-36) who presided at the trial of Jesus and gave the order for his crucifixion. The New Testament represents Pilate as a weak and vacillating man, who found no fault with Jesus but ordered his execution to please the mob calling for his death. Known for his severity toward the Jews, he was eventually ordered back to Rome to stand trial for cruelty and oppression. A tradition of uncertain accuracy holds that he killed himself on orders from Caligula in AD 39; another legend relates that both Pilate and his wife became converts to Christianity.


Villa
Mexican guerrilla leader. Orphaned at a young age, he spent his adolescence as a fugitive, having murdered a landowner in revenge for an assault on his sister. An advocate of radical land reform, he joined F. Madero's uprising against P. D\u00ed az. His Divisi\u00f3 n del Norte joined forces with V. Carranza to overthrow V. Huerta (1854-1916), but he soon broke with the moderate Carranza and in 1914 was forced to flee with E. Zapata. In 1916, to demonstrate that Carranza did not control the north, he raided a town in New Mexico. A U.S. force led by Gen. J. Pershing was sent against him, but his popularity and knowledge of his home territory made him impossible to capture. He was granted a pardon after Carranza's overthrow (1920) but was assassinated three years later. See also Mexican Revolution, A. Obreg\u00f3 n.


villa
Country estate, complete with house, grounds, and subsidiary buildings. The term particularly applies to the suburban summer residences of the ancient Romans and their later Italian imitators. Roman villas frequently were asymmetrical in plan and built with elaborate terracing on hillsides; they had long colonnades, towers, gardens with reflecting pools and fountains, and extensive reservoirs. In Britain the term has come to mean a small detached or semidetached suburban home. See also Hadrian's Villa, A. Palladio.


Villard
German-U.S. journalist and financier. In 1853 he emigrated to the U.S., where he first found work with German-language newspapers. During the Civil War he was a correspondent for two New York newspapers. In 1881 he purchased the Nation magazine and the New York Evening Post. In the 1870s he organized several railroads in Oregon, and from 1881 to 1884 he was president of the Northern Pacific, a transcontinental railroad completed under his management despite large cost overruns; he later served as chairman of the board (1888-93). He bought two Edison companies and created the Edison General Electric Co. in 1889, serving as president until its reorganization in 1892 as the General Electric Co.


Villars
French soldier. He distinguished himself in France's war against the Dutch (1672-78) and in the War of the Grand Alliance. After leading French forces to early victories in the War of the Spanish Succession, he was made a marshal of France ...

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