poverty of his early years was relieved by the liberality of the
courtesan Nicopolis, who left him heir to a large fortune; and with
the addition of the immense wealth of his mother-in-law, he soon
appeared one of the most opulent of the Romans. He first entered
the army under the great Marius, whom he accompanied in Numidia in
the capacity of questor. He rendered himself conspicuous in military
affairs; and Bocchus, one of the princes of Numidia, delivered
Jugurtha into his hands for the Roman consul. The rising fame of
Sylla gave umbrage to Marius, who was always jealous of an equal,
as well as of a superior; but the ill language which he might use,
rather inflamed than extinguished the ambition of Sylla. He left the
conqueror of Jugurtha, and carried arms under Catullus. Some time
after he obtained the pretorship, and was appointed by the Roman
senate to place Ariobarzanes on the throne of Cappadocia, against
the views and interest of Mithridates king of Pontus. This he easily
effected: one battle left him victorious; and before he quitted the
plains of Asia, the Roman pretor had the satisfaction to receive
in his camp the ambassadors of the king of Parthia, who wished
to make a treaty of alliance with the Romans. Sylla received them
with haughtiness, and behaved with such arrogance, that one of them
exclaimed, “Surely this man is master of the world, or doomed to be
such!” At his return to Rome, he was commissioned to finish the war
with the Marsi, and when this was successfully ended, he was rewarded
with the consulship, in the 50th year of his age. In this capacity
he wished to have the administration of the Mithridatic war; but he
found an obstinate adversary in Marius, and he attained the summit of
his wishes only when he had entered Rome sword in hand. After he had
slaughtered all his enemies, set a price upon the head of Marius, and
put to death the tribune Sulpitius, who had continually opposed his
views, he marched towards Asia, and disregarded the flames of discord
which he left behind him unextinguished. Mithridates was already
master of the greatest part of Greece; and Sylla, when he reached
the coast of Peloponnesus, was delayed by the siege of Athens, and
of the Piræus. His operations were carried on with vigour, and when
he found his money fail, he made no scruple to take the riches of the
temples of the gods to bribe his soldiers, and render them devoted
to his service. His boldness succeeded. The Piræus surrendered;
and the conqueror, as if struck with reverence at the beautiful
porticoes where the philosophic followers of Socrates and Plato had
often disputed, spared the city of Athens, which he had devoted to
destruction, and forgave the living for the sake of the dead. Two
celebrated battles at Cheronæa and Orchomenos, rendered him master
of Greece. He crossed the Hellespont, and attacked Mithridates in
the very heart of his kingdom. The artful monarch, who well knew
the valour and perseverance of his adversary, made proposals of
peace; and Sylla, whose interest at home was then decreasing, did
not hesitate to put an end to a war which had rendered him master
of so much territory, and which enabled him to return to Rome like
a conqueror, and to dispute with his rival the sovereignty of the
republic with a victorious army. Muræna was left at the head of the
Roman forces in Asia, and Sylla hastened to Italy. In the plains of
Campania, he was met by a few of his adherents, whom the success of
his rivals had banished from the capital, and he was soon informed,
that if he wished to contend with Marius, he must encounter 15
generals, followed by 25 well-disciplined legions. In these critical
circumstances he had recourse to artifice, and while he proposed
terms of accommodation to his adversaries, he secretly strengthened
himself, and saw, with pleasure, his armies daily increase by the
revolt of soldiers whom his bribes or promises had corrupted. Pompey,
who afterwards merited the surname of Great, embraced his cause, and
marched to the camp with three legions. Soon after he appeared in the
field with advantage; the confidence of Marius decayed with his power,
and Sylla entered Rome like a tyrant and a conqueror. The streets
were daily filled with dead bodies, and 7000 citizens, to whom the
conqueror had promised pardon, were suddenly massacred in the circus.
The senate, at that time assembled in the temple of Bellona, heard
the shrieks of their dying countrymen; and when they inquired into
the cause of it, Sylla coolly replied, “They are only a few rebels
whom I have ordered to be chastised.” If this had been the last and
most dismal scene, Rome might have been called happy; but it was only
the beginning of her misfortunes. Each succeeding day exhibited a
great number of slaughtered bodies, and when one of the senators had
the boldness to ask the tyrant when he meant to stop his cruelties,
Sylla, with an air of unconcern, answered, that he had not yet
determined, but that he would take it into his consideration. The
slaughter was continued; a list of such as were proscribed was daily
stuck in the public streets, and the slave was rewarded to bring his
master’s head, and the son was not ashamed to imbrue his hands in the
blood of his father for money. No less than 4700 of the most powerful
and opulent were slain, and Sylla wished the Romans to forget his
cruelties in aspiring to the title of perpetual dictator. In this
capacity he made new laws, abrogated such as were inimical to his
views, and changed every regulation where his ambition was obstructed.
After he had finished whatever the most absolute sovereign may do
from his own will and authority, Sylla abdicated the dictatorial
power, and retired to a solitary retreat at Puteoli, where he spent
the rest of his days, if not in literary ease and tranquillity, yet
far from the noise of arms, in the midst of riot and debauchery. The
companions of his retirement were the most base and licentious of the
populace, and Sylla took pleasure still to wallow in voluptuousness,
though on the verge of life, and covered with infirmities. His
intemperance hastened his end, his blood was corrupted, and an
imposthume was bred in his bowels. He at last died in the greatest
torments of the lousy disease, about 78 years before Christ, in the
60th year of his age; and it has been observed, that, like Marius,
on his death-bed, he wished to drown the stings of conscience and
remorse by continual intoxication. His funeral was very magnificent;
his body was attended by the senate and the vestal virgins, and
hymns were sung to celebrate his exploits and to honour his memory.
A monument was erected in the field of Mars, on which appeared an
inscription written by himself, in which he said, that the good
services he had received from his friends, and the injuries of his
enemies, had been returned with unexampled usury. The character of
Sylla is that of an ambitious, dissimulating, credulous, tyrannical,
debauched, and resolute commander. He was revengeful in the highest
degree, and the surname of _Felix_, or _the Fortunate_, which he
assumed, showed that he was more indebted to fortune than to valour
for the great fame which he had acquired. But in the midst of all
this, who cannot admire the moderation and philosophy of a man,
who when absolute master of a republic, which he had procured by
his cruelty and avarice, silently abdicates the sovereign power,
challenges a critical examination of his administration, and retires
to live securely in the midst of thousands whom he has injured and
offended? The Romans were pleased and astonished at his abdication;
and when the insolence of a young man had been vented against
the dictator, he calmly answered, “This usage may perhaps deter
another to resign his power to follow my example, if ever he
becomes absolute.” Sylla has been commended for the patronage
which he gave to the arts and sciences. He brought from Asia the
extensive library of Apellicon the Peripatetic philosopher, in
which were the works of Aristotle and Theophrastus, and he himself
composed 22 books of memoirs concerning himself. _Cicero_, _Against
Verres_, &c.――_Cornelius Nepos_, _Atticus_.――_Paterculus_, bk. 2,
ch. 17, &c.――_Livy_, bk. 75, &c.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 20.
――_Florus_, bk. 3, ch. 5, &c.; bk. 4, ch. 2, &c.――_Valerius
Maximus_, bk. 12, &c.――_Polybius_, bk. 5.――_Justin_, bks. 37 & 38.
――_Eutropius_, bk. 5, ch. 2.――_Plutarch_, _Lives_.――――A nephew of
the dictator, who conspired against his country because he had been
deprived of his consulship for bribery.――――Another relation, who
also joined in the same conspiracy.――――A man put to death by Nero
at Marseilles, where he had been banished.――――A friend of Cato,
defeated and killed by one of Cæsar’s lieutenants.――――A senator
banished from the senate for his prodigality by Tiberius.
=Syllis=, a nymph, mother of Zeuxippus by Apollo. _Pausanias_, bk. 2,
ch. 6.
=Syloes=, a promontory of Africa.
=Sylŏson=, a man who gave a splendid garment to Darius son of Hystaspes,
when a private man. Darius, when raised to the throne of Persia,
remembered the gift of Syloson with gratitude. _Strabo_, bk. 14.
=Sylvānus=, a god of the woods. _See:_ Silvanus.
=Sylvia=, or =Ilia=, the mother of Romulus. _See:_ Rhea.――――A daughter
of Tyrrhenus, whose favourite stag was wounded by Ascanius. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 503.
=Sylvius=, a son of Æneas by Lavinia, from whom afterwards all the
kings of Alba were called _Sylvii_. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 763.
=Syma=, or =Syme=, a town of Asia.――――A nymph, mother of Chthonius by
Neptune. _Diodorus_, bk. 5.
=Symbŏlum=, a place of Macedonia, near Philippi, on the confines of
Thrace.
=Symmăchus=, an officer in the army of Agesilaus.――――A celebrated
orator in the age of Theodosius the Great. His father was prefect of
Rome. He wrote against the christians, and 10 books of his letters
are extant, which have been refuted by Ambrose and Prudentius. The
best editions of Symmachus are that of Geneva, 8vo, 1598, and that
of Paris, 4to, 1604.――――A writer in the second century. He translated
the Bible into Greek, of which few fragments remain.
=Symplegădes=, or =Cyaneæ=, two islands or rocks at the entrance of the
Euxine sea. _See:_ Cyaneæ.
=Symus=, a mountain of Armenia, from which the Araxes flows.
=Syncellus=, one of the Byzantine historians, whose works were edited
in folio, Paris, 1652.
=Synesius=, a bishop of Cyrene in the age of Theodosius the younger,
as conspicuous for his learning as his piety. He wrote 155 epistles,
besides other treatises, in Greek, in a style pure and elegant,
and bordering much upon the poetic. The last edition is in 8vo,
Paris, 1605; inferior, however, to the _editio princeps_ by Dionysius
Pectavius, folio, Paris, 1613. The best edition of Synesius _de
febribus_ is that of Bernard, Amsterdam, 1749.
=Synnalaxis=, a nymph of Ionia, who had a temple at Heraclea in Elis.
_Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 22.
=Synnas= (adis), or =Synnada= (plural), a town of Phrygia, famous
for its marble quarries. _Strabo_, bk. 12.――_Claudian_, _Against
Eutropius_, bk. 2.――_Martial_, bk. 9, ltr. 77.――_Statius_, bk. 1,
_Sylvæ_, poem 5, li. 41.
=Synnis=, a famous robber of Attica. _See:_ Scinis.
=Synōpe=, a town on the borders of the Euxine. _See:_ Sinope.
=Syphæum=, a town of the Brutii in Italy. _Livy_, bk. 30, ch. 19.
=Syphax=, a king of the Masæsylii in Libya, who married Sophonisba the
daughter of Asdrubal, and forsook the alliance of the Romans to join
himself to the interest of his father-in-law, and of Carthage. He
was conquered in a battle by Masinissa the ally of Rome, and given to
Scipio the Roman general. The conqueror carried him to Rome, where he
adorned his triumph. Syphax died in prison 201 years before Christ,
and his possessions were given to Masinissa. According to some, the
descendants of Syphax reigned for some time over a part of Numidia,
and continued to make opposition to the Romans. _Livy_, bk. 24, &c.
――_Plutarch_, _Scipio_.――_Florus_, bk. 2, ch. 6.――_Polybius._
――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 16, lis. 171 & 188.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 6,
li. 769.
=Syraces=, one of the Sacæ, who mutilated himself, and, by pretending
to be a deserter, brought Darius, who made war against his country,
into many difficulties. _Polyænus_, bk. 7.
=Syracosia=, festivals at Syracuse celebrated during 10 days, in which
women were busily employed in offering sacrifices.――――Another yearly
observed near the lake of Syracuse, where, as they supposed, Pluto
had disappeared with Proserpine.
=Syracūsæ=, a celebrated city of Sicily, founded about 732 years
before the christian era by Archias, a Corinthian, and one of the
Heraclidæ. In its flourishing state it extended 22½ English miles in
circumference, and was divided into four districts, Ortygia, Acradina,
Tycha, and Neapolis, to which some add a fifth division, Epipolæ, a
district little inhabited. These were of themselves separate cities,
and were fortified with three citadels, and three-folded walls.
Syracuse had two capacious harbours separated from one another by
the island of Ortygia. The greatest harbour was about 5000 paces
in circumference, and its entrance 500 paces wide. The people of
Syracuse were very opulent and powerful, and though subject to
tyrants, they were masters of vast possessions and dependent states.
The city of Syracuse was well built, its houses were stately and
magnificent; and it has been said, that it produced the best and most
excellent of men when they were virtuous, but the most wicked and
depraved when addicted to vicious pursuits. The women of Syracuse
were not permitted to adorn themselves with gold, or wear costly
garments, except such as prostituted themselves. Syracuse gave birth
to Theocritis and Archimedes. It was under different governments;
and after being freed from the tyranny of Thrasybulus, B.C. 446, it
enjoyed security for 61 years, till the usurpation of the Dionysii,
who were expelled by Timoleon, B.C. 343. In the age of the elder
Dionysius, an army of 100,000 foot and 10,000 horse, and 400 ships,
were kept in constant pay. It fell into the hands of the Romans,
under the consul Marcellus, after a siege of three years, B.C. 212.
_Cicero_, _Against Verres_, bk. 4, chs. 52 & 53.――_Strabo_, bks. 1
& 8.――_Cornelius Nepos._――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Livy_, bk. 23, &c.
――_Plutarch_, _Marcellus_, &c.――_Florus_, bk. 2, ch. 6.――_Silius
Italicus_, bk. 14, li. 278.
=Syria=, a large country of Asia, whose boundaries are not accurately
ascertained by the ancients. Syria, generally speaking, was bounded
on the east by the Euphrates, north by mount Taurus, west by the
Mediterranean, and south by Arabia. It was divided into several
districts and provinces, among which were Phœnicia, Seleucis, Judæa
or Palestine, Mesopotamia, Babylon, and Assyria. It was also called
_Assyria_; and the words Syria and Assyria, though distinguished and
defined by some authors, were often used indifferently. Syria was
subjected to the monarchs of Persia; but after the death of Alexander
the Great, Seleucus, surnamed Nicator, who had received this province
as his lot in the division of the Macedonian dominions, raised it
into an empire, known in history by the name of the kingdom of Syria
or Babylon, B.C. 312. Seleucus died after a reign of 32 years, and
his successors, surnamed the _Seleucidæ_, ascended the throne in the
following order: Antiochus, surnamed Soter, 280 B.C.; Antiochus Theos,
261; Seleucus Callinicus, 246; Seleucus Ceraunus, 226; Antiochus
the Great, 223; Seleucus Philopator, 187; Antiochus Epiphanes, 175;
Antiochus Eupator, 164; Demetrius Soter, 162; Alexander Balas, 150;
Demetrius Nicator, 146; Antiochus VI., 144; Diodotus Tryphon, 147;
Antiochus Sidetes, 139; Demetrius Nicator restored, 130; Alexander
Zebina, 127, who was dethroned by Antiochus Grypus, 123; Antiochus
Cyzicenus, 112, who takes part of Syria, which he calls Cœlesyria;
Philip and Demetrius Eucerus, 93, and in Cœlesyria, Antiochus Pius;
Aretas was king of Cœlesyria, 85; Tigranes, king of Armenia, 83; and
Antiochus Asiaticus, 69, who was dethroned by Pompey, B.C. 65; in
consequence of which Syria became a Roman province. _Herodotus_, bks.
2, 3 & 7.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, _Argonautica_.――_Strabo_, bks. 12 &
16.――_Cornelius Nepos_, _Datames_.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 2.――_Ptolemy_,
bk. 5, ch. 6.――_Curtius_, bk. 6.――_Dionysius Periegetes._
=Syriăcum mare=, that part of the Mediterranean sea which is on the
coast of Phœnicia and Syria.
=Syrinx=, a nymph of Arcadia, daughter of the river Ladon. Pan became
enamoured of her, and attempted to offer her violence; but Syrinx
escaped, and at her own request was changed by the gods into a reed
called Syrinx by the Greeks. The god made himself a pipe with the
reeds, into which his favourite nymph had been changed. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 1, li. 691.――_Martial_, bk. 9, ltr. 63.
=Syrophœnix=, the name of an inhabitant of the maritime coast of Syria.
_Juvenal_, satire 8.
=Syros=, one of the Cyclades in the Ægean sea, at the east of Delos,
about 20 miles in circumference, very fruitful in wine and corn of
all sorts. The inhabitants lived to a great old age, because the air
was wholesome. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 15, li. 504.――_Strabo_, bk. 10.
――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――――A town of Caria. _Pausanias_, bk. 3,
ch. 26.
=Syrtes=, two large sand-banks in the Mediterranean on the coast of
Africa, one of which was near Leptis, and the other near Carthage.
As they often changed places, and were sometimes very high or very
low under the water, they were deemed most dangerous in navigation,
and proved fatal to whatever ships touched upon them. From this
circumstance, therefore, the word has been used to denote any
part of the sea of which the navigation was attended with danger,
either from whirlpools or hidden rocks. _Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 7; bk. 2,
ch. 7.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 4, li. 41.――_Lucan_, bk. 9, li. 303.
――_Sallust_, _ Jugurthine War_.
=Syrus=, an island. _See:_ Syros.――――A son of Apollo by Sinope the
daughter of the Asopus, who gave his name to Syria. _Plutarch_,
_Lucullus_.――――A writer. _See:_ Publius.
=Sysigambis=, the mother of Darius. _See:_ Sisygambis.
=Sysimethres=, a Persian satrap, who had two children by his mother,
an incestuous commerce tolerated by the laws of Persia. He opposed
Alexander with 2000 men, but soon surrendered. He was greatly
honoured by the conqueror. _Curtius_, bk. 8, ch. 4.
=Sysinas=, the elder son of Datames, who revolted from his father to
Artaxerxes.
=Sythas=, a river of Peloponnesus, flowing through Sicyonia into the
bay of Corinth. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 7.
T
=Taautes=, a Phœnician deity, the same as the Saturn of the Latins, and
probably the Thoth, or Thaut, the Mercury of the Egyptians. _Cicero_,
_de Natura Deorum_, bk. 3, ch. 22.――_Varro._
=Tabæ=, a town of Pisidia. _Livy_, bk. 38, ch. 13.
=Tabellariæ leges=, laws made by suffrages delivered upon tables
(_tabellæ_), and not _vivâ voce_. There were four of these laws, the
_Gabinia lex_, A.U.C. 614, by Gabinius; the _Cassia_, by Cassius,
A.U.C. 616; the _Papiria_, by Carbo, A.U.C. 622; and the _Cælia_,
by Cælius, A.U.C. 646. _Cicero_, _de Legibus_, bk. 3, ch. 16.
=Tabernæ novæ=, a street in Rome where shops were built. _Livy_, bk. 3,
ch. 48.――――Rhenanæ, a town of Germany on the confluence of the
Felbach and the Rhine, now _Rhin-Zabern_.――――Riguæ, now _Bern-Castel_,
on the Moselle.――――Triboccorum, a town of Alsace in France, now
_Saverne_.
=Tabor=, a mountain of Palestine.
=Tabrăca=, a maritime town of Africa, near Hippo, made a Roman colony.
The neighbouring forests abounded with monkeys. _Juvenal_, satire 10,
li. 194.――_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 3.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 7.――_Silius
Italicus_, bk. 3, li. 256.
=Tabuda=, a river of Germany, now the _Scheldt_. _Ptolemy._
=Taburnus=, a mountain of Campania, which abounded with olives.
_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 2, li. 38; _Æneid_, bk. 12, li. 715.
=Tacape=, a town of Africa.
=Tacatua=, a maritime town of Numidia.
=Tacfarīnas=, a Numidian who commanded an army against the Romans in
the reign of Tiberius. He had formerly served in the Roman legions,
but in the character of an enemy, he displayed the most inveterate
hatred against his benefactor. After he had severally defeated the
officers of Tiberius, he was at last routed and killed in the field
of battle, fighting with uncommon fury, by Dolabella. _Tacitus_,
_Annals_, bk. 2, &c.
=Tachampso=, an island in the Nile, near Thebais. The Egyptians
held one half of this island, and the rest was in the hands of the
Æthiopians. _Herodotus_, bk. 2.
=Tachos=, or =Tachus=, a king of Egypt, in the reign of Artaxerxes
Ochus, against whom he sustained a long war. He was assisted by the
Greeks, but his confidence in Agesilaus king of Lacedæmon proved
fatal to him. Chabrias the Athenian had been entrusted with the fleet
of the Egyptian monarch, and Agesilaus was left with the command of
the mercenary army. The Lacedæmonian disregarded his engagements,
and by joining with Nectanebus, who had revolted from Tachus, he
ruined the affairs of the monarch, and obliged him to save his life
by flight. Some observe that Agesilaus acted with that duplicity to
avenge himself upon Tachus, who had insolently ridiculed his short
and deformed stature. The expectations of Tachus had been raised by
the fame of Agesilaus; but when he saw the lame monarch, he repeated
on the occasion the fable of the mountain which brought forth a mouse,
upon which Agesilaus replied with asperity, though he called him a
mouse, yet he soon should find him to be a lion. _Cornelius Nepos_,
_Agesilaus._
=Tacina=, a river of the Brutii.
=Tacĭta=, a goddess who presided over silence. Numa, as some say, paid
particular veneration to this divinity.
=Tacĭtus ♦Publius Cornelius=, a celebrated Latin historian, born in the
reign of Nero. His father was a Roman knight, who had been appointed
governor of Belgic Gaul. The native genius and the rising talents of
Tacitus were beheld with rapture by the emperor Vespasian, and as he
wished to protect and patronize merit, he raised the young historian
to places of trust and honour. The succeeding emperors were not less
partial to Tacitus, and Domitian seemed to forget his cruelties, when
virtue and innocence claimed his patronage. Tacitus was honoured with
the consulship, and he gave proofs of his eloquence at the bar by
supporting the cause of the injured Africans against the proconsul
Marius Priscus, and in causing him to be condemned for his avarice
and extortion. The friendly intercourse of Pliny and Tacitus has
often been admired, and many have observed, that the familiarity
of these two great men arose from similar principles, and a perfect
conformity of manners and opinions. Yet Tacitus was as much the
friend of a republican government, as Pliny was an admirer of the
imperial power, and of the short-lived virtues of his patron Trajan.
Pliny gained the heart of his adherents by affability, and all the
elegant graces which became the courtier and the favourite, while
Tacitus conciliated the esteem of the world by his virtuous conduct,
which prudence and love of honour ever guided. The friendship of
Tacitus and of Pliny almost became proverbial, and one was scarce
mentioned without the other, as the following instance may indicate.
At the exhibition of the spectacles in the circus, Tacitus held a
long conversation on different subjects with a Roman knight, with
whom he was unacquainted; and when the knight asked him whether he
was a native of Italy, the historian told him that he was not unknown
to him, and that for their distant acquaintance he was indebted to
literature. “Then you are,” replied the knight, “either Tacitus or
Pliny.” The time of Tacitus was not employed in trivial pursuits; the
orator might have been forgotten if the historian had not flourished.
Tacitus wrote a treatise on the manners of the Germans, a composition
admired for the fidelity and exactness with which it is executed,
though some have declared that the historian delineated manners and
customs with which he was not acquainted, and which never existed.
His life of Cnaeus Julius Agricola, whose daughter he had married,
is celebrated for its purity, elegance, and the many excellent
instructions and important truths which it relates. His history of
the Roman emperors is imperfect; of the 28 years of which it treated,
that is from the 69th to the 96th year of the christian era, nothing
remains but the year 69, and part of the 70th. His annals were the
most extensive and complete of his works. The history of the reign
of Tiberius, Caius, Claudius, and Nero, was treated with accuracy and
attention, yet we are to lament the loss of the history of the reign
of Caius, and the beginning of that of Claudius. Tacitus had reserved
for his old age the history of the reign of Nerva and Trajan, and
he also proposed to give to the world an account of the interesting
administration of Augustus; but these important subjects never
employed the pen of the historian, and as some of the ancients
observe, the only compositions of Tacitus were contained in 30 books,
of which we have now left only 16 of his annals, and five of his
history. The style of Tacitus has always been admired for peculiar
beauties: the thoughts are great; there is a sublimity, force, weight,
and energy; everything is treated with precision and dignity. Yet
many have called him obscure, because he was fond of expressing his
ideas in few words. This was the fruit of experience and judgment;
the history appears copious and diffuse, while the annals, which were
written in his old age, are less flowing as to style, more concise,
and more heavily laboured. His Latin is remarkable for being pure and
classical; and though a writer in the decline of the Roman empire,
he has not used obsolete words, antiquated phrases, or barbarous
expressions, but with him everything is sanctioned by the authority
of the writers of the Augustan age. In his biographical sketches
he displays an uncommon knowledge of human nature; he paints every
scene with a masterly hand, and gives each object its proper size
and becoming colours. Affairs of importance are treated with dignity,
the secret causes of events and revolutions are investigated from
their primeval source, and the historian everywhere shows his reader
that he was a friend of public liberty and national independence, a
lover of truth, and of the general good and welfare of mankind, and
an inveterate enemy to oppression and to a tyrannical government. The
history of the reign of Tiberius is his masterpiece: the deep policy,
the dissimulation and various intrigues of this celebrated prince,
are painted with all the fidelity of the historian; and Tacitus
boasted in saying, that he neither would flatter the follies, or
maliciously or partially represent the extravagance, of the several
characters he delineated. Candour and impartiality were his standard,
and his claim to these essential qualifications of an historian have
never been disputed. It is said that the emperor Tacitus, who boasted
in being one of the descendants of the historian, ordered the works
of his ancestor to be placed in all public libraries, and directed
that 10 copies, well ascertained for accuracy and exactness, should
be yearly written, that so great and so valuable a work might not
be lost. Some ecclesiastical writers have exclaimed against Tacitus
for the partial manner in which he speaks of the Jews and christians;
but it should be remembered that he spoke the language of the Romans,
and that the ♠peculiarities of the christians could not but draw upon
them the odium and the ridicule of the pagans, and the imputation of
superstition. Among the many excellent editions of Tacitus, these may
pass for the best: that of Rome, folio, 1515; that in 8vo, 2 vols.,
Leiden, 1673; that in usum Delphim, 4 vols., 4to, Paris, 1682; that
of Lipscomb, 2 vols., 8vo, 1714; of Gronovius, 2 vols., 4to, 1721;
that of Brotier, 7 vols., 12mo, Paris, 1776; that of Ernesti, 2 vols.,
8vo, Lipscomb, 1777; and Barbou’s, 3 vols., 12mo, Paris, 1760.
――――Marcus Claudius, a Roman chosen emperor by the senate, after the
death of Aurelian. He would have refused this important and dangerous
office, but the pressing solicitations of the senate prevailed,
and in the 70th year of his age he complied with the wishes of his
countrymen, and accepted the purple. The time of his administration
was very popular, the good of the people was his care, and as
a pattern of moderation, economy, temperance, regularity, and
impartiality, Tacitus found no equal. He abolished the several
brothels which under the preceding reigns had filled Rome with
licentiousness and obscenity; and by ordering all the public baths to
be shut at sunset, he prevented the commission of many irregularities,
which the darkness of the night had hitherto sanctioned. The senators
under Tacitus seemed to have recovered their ancient dignity and
long-lost privileges. They were not only the counsellers of the
emperor, but they even seemed to be his masters; and when Florianus,
the brother-in-law of Tacitus, was refused the consulship, the
emperor said, that the senate, no doubt, could fix upon a more
deserving object. As a warrior, Tacitus is inferior to few of the
Romans; and during a short reign of about six months, he not only
repelled the barbarians who had invaded the territories of Rome in
Asia, but he prepared to make war against the Persians and Scythians.
He died in Cilicia as he was on his expedition, of a violent
distemper, or, according to some, he was destroyed by the secret
dagger of an assassin, on the 13th of April, in the 276th year
of the christian era. Tacitus has been commended for his love of
learning; and it has been observed, that he never passed a day
without consecrating some part of his time to reading or writing. He
has been accused of superstition, and authors have recorded that he
never studied on the second day of each month, a day which he deemed
inauspicious and unlucky. _Tacitus_, _Agricola_.――_Zosimus._
♦ ‘C.’ replaced with ‘Publius’
♠ ‘peculiarites’ replaced with ‘peculiarities’
=Tader=, a river of Spain, near New Carthage.
=Tædai=, a prostitute at Rome, &c., _Juvenal_, Satire 2, li. 49.
=Tænărus=, now _Matapan_, a promontory of Laconia, the most southern
point of Europe, where Neptune had a temple. There was there a large
and deep cavern, whence issued a black and unwholesome vapour, from
which circumstance the poets have imagined that it was one of the
entrances of hell, through which Hercules dragged Cerberus from
the infernal regions. This fabulous tradition arises, according
to Pausanias, from the continual resort of a large serpent near
the cavern of Tænarus, whose bite was mortal. The serpent, as the
geographer observes, was at last killed by Hercules, and carried
to Eurystheus. The town of Tænarus was at the distance of about 40
stadia from the promontory, and was famous for marble of a beautiful
green colour. The town, as well as the promontory, received its name
from Tænarus, a son of Neptune. There were some festivals celebrated
there, called _Tænaria_, in honour of Neptune, surnamed _Tænarius_.
_Homer_, _Hymn to Apollo_, li. 413.――_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 14.
――_Lucan_, bk. 6, li. 648.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 2, li. 247;
bk. 10, lis. 13 & 83.――_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 25.――_Apollodorus_,
bk. 2, ch. 5.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3.――_Strabo_, bk. 8.
=Tænias=, a part of the lake Mœotis. _Strabo._
=Tagaste=, a town of Numidia. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 4.
=Tages=, a son of Genius, grandson of Jupiter, was the first who taught
the 12 nations of the Etrurians the science of augury and divination.
It is said that he was found by a Tuscan ploughman in the form
of a clod, and that he assumed a human shape to instruct this
nation, which became so celebrated for their knowledge of omens
and incantations. _Cicero_, _de Divinatione_ bk. 2, ch. 23.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 15, li. 558.――_Lucan_, bk. 1, li. 673.
=Tagonius=, a river of Hispania Tarraconensis.