Chapter 18

SYENE, a town in the Higher Egypt, towards the borders of Ethiopia, situate on the Nile. It lies under the tropic of Cancer, as is evident, says Pliny the elder, from there being no shadow projected at noon at the summer solstice. It was, for a long time, the boundary of the Roman empire. A garrison was stationed there: Juvenal was sent to command there by Domitian, who, by conferring that unlocked for honour, meant, with covered malice, to punish the poet for his reflection on Paris the comedian, a native of Egypt, and a favourite at court.

SYRACUSE, one of the noblest cities in Sicily. The Romans took it during the second Punic war, on which occasion the great Archimedes lost his life. It is now destroyed, and no remains of the place are left. _Etiam periere ruinæ_.

SYRIA, a country of the Hither Asia, between the Mediterranean and the Euphrates, so extensive that Palestine, or the Holy Land, was deemed a part of Syria.

SYRTES, the _deserts of Barbary_: also two dangerous sandy gulfs in the Mediterranean, on the coast of Barbary; one called _Syrtis Magna_, now the _Gulf of Sidra_; the other _Syrtis Parva_, now the _Gulf of Cassos_.

T.

TANAIS, the _Don_, a very large river in Scythia, dividing Asia from Europe. It rises in Muscovy, and flowing through _Crim Tartary_, runs into the _Palus Mæotis_, near the city now called Azoff, in the hands of the Turks.

TARENTUM, now Tarento, in the province of _Otranto_. The Lacedemonians founded a colony there, and thence it was called by Horace, _Lacedæmonium Tarentum_.

TARICHÆA, a town of Galilee. It was besieged and taken by Vespasian, who sent six thousand of the prisoners to assist in cutting a passage through the isthmus of Corinth.

TARRACINA, a city of the Volsci in Latium, near the mouth of the _Ufens_, in the Campania of Rome. Now _Terracina_, on the Tuscan Sea.

TARRACO, the capital of a division of Spain, called by the Romans _Tarraconensis_; now Taragon, a port town in Catalonia, on the Mediterranean, to the west of _Barcelona_. See HISPANIA.

TARTARUS, a river running between the Po and the Athesis, (the _Adige_) from west to east, into the Adriatic; now _Tartaro_.

TAUNUS, a mountain of Germany, on the other side of the Rhine; now Mount _Heyrick_, over-against _Mentz_.

TAURANNITII, a people who occupied a district of _Armenia Major_, not far from _Tigranocerta_.

TAURI, a people inhabiting the _Taurica Chersonesus_, on the _Euxine_. The country is now called _Crim Tartary_.

TAURINI, a people dwelling at the foot of the Alps. Their capital was called, after Augustus Cæsar, who planted a colony, there, _Augusta Taurinorum_. The modern name is _Turin_, the capital of Piedmont.

TAURUS, the greatest mountain in Asia, extending from the Indian to the Ægean Sea; said to be fifty miles over, and fifteen hundred long. Its extremity to the north is called _Imaus_.

TELEBOÆ, a people of Æolia or Acarnania in Greece, who removed to Italy, and settled in the isle of Capreæ.

TEMNOS, an inland town of Æolia, in the Hither Asia.

TENCTERI, a people of Germany. See the Manners of the Germans, s. 32.

TENOS, one of the Cyclades.

TERMES, a city in the Hither Spain; now a village called _Tiermes_, in Castille.

TERRACINA, a city of the _Volsci_ in Latium, near the mouth of the _Ufens_, on the Tuscan Sea; now called _Terracina_, in the territory of Rome.

TEUTOBURGIUM, a forest in Germany, rendered famous by the slaughter of Varus and his legions. It began in the country of the Marsi, and extended to Paderborn, Osnaburg, and Munster, between the _Ems_ and the _Luppia_.

THALA, a town in Numidia, destroyed in the war of Julius Cæsar against Juba.

THEBÆ, a very ancient town in the Higher Egypt, on the east side of the Nile, famous for its hundred gates. Another city of the same name in Bœotia, in Greece, said to have been built by Cadmus. It had the honour of producing two illustrious chiefs, Epaminondas and Pelopidas, and Pindar the celebrated poet. Alexander rased it to the ground; but spared the house and family of Pindar.

THERMES otherwise THERMA, a town in Macedonia, afterwards called _Thessalonica_, famous for two epistles of St. Paul to the Thessalonians. The city stood at the head of a large bay, called _Thermæus Sinus_; now _Golfo di Salonichi_.

THESSALY, a country of Greece, formerly a great part of Macedonia.

THRACIA, an extensive region, bounded to the north by Mount Hæmus, to the south by the Ægean Sea, and by the Euxine and Propontis to the east. In the time of Tiberius it was an independent kingdom, but afterwards made a Roman province.

THUBASCUM, a town of Mauritania in Africa.

THURII, a people of ancient Italy, inhabiting a part of Lucania, between the rivers Crathis (now _Crate_), and Sybaris (now _Sibari_).

TIBER, a town of ancient Latium, situate on the Anio, about twenty miles from Rome. Here Horace had his villa, and it was the frequent retreat of Augustus. Now _Tivoli_.

TICINUM, a town of _Insubria_, situate on the river Ticinus, near its confluence with the Po; now _Pavia_, in Milan.

TICINUS, a river of Italy falling into the Po, near the city of _Ticinum_, or Pavia; now _Tesino_.

TIGRANOCERTA, a town of Armenia Major, built by Tigranes in the time of the Mithridatic war. The river _Nicephorus_ washes one side of the town. Brotier says, it is now called _Sert_ or _Sered_.

TIGRIS, a great river bounding the country called Mesopotamia to the east, while the Euphrates incloses it to the west. Pliny gives an account of the Tigris, in its rise and progress, till it sinks under ground near Mount Taurus, and breaks forth again with a rapid current, falling at last into the Persian Gulf. It divides into two channels at Seleucia.

TMOLUS, a mountain of Lydia, commended for its vines, its saffron, its fragrant shrubs, and the fountain-head of the Pactolus. It appears from Tacitus, that there was a town of the same name, that stood near the mountain.

TOLBIACUM, a town of Gallia Belgica; now _Zulpich_, or _Zulch_, a small town in the duchy of Juliers.

TRALLES, formerly a rich and populous city of Lydia, not far from the river Meander. The ruins are still visible.

TRAPEZUS, now _Trapezond_ or _Trebizond_, a city with a port in the Lesser Asia, on the Euxine.

TREVIRI, the people of _Treves_; an ancient city of the Lower Germany, on the Moselle. It was made a Roman colony by Augustus, and became the most famous city of Belgic Gaul. It is now the capital of an electorate of the same name.

TRIBOCI, a people of Belgica, originally Germans. They inhabited _Alsace_, and the diocese of _Strasbourg_.

TRIMETUS, an island in the Adriatic; one of those which the ancients called _Insulæ Diomedeæ_; it still retains the name of _Tremiti_. It lies near the coast of the _Capitanate_, a province of the kingdom of Naples, on the Gulf of Venice.

TRINOBANTES, a people of Britain, who inhabited _Middlesex_ and _Essex_.

TUBANTES, an ancient people of Germany, about _Westphalia_.

TUNGRI, a people of Belgia. Their city, according to Cæsar, _Atuaca_; now _Tongeren_, in the bishopric of Liege.

TURONII, a people of ancient Gaul, inhabiting the east side of the _Ligeris_ (now the _Loire_). Hence the modern name of _Tours_.

TUSCULUM, a town of Latium, to the north of _Alba_, about twelve miles from Rome. It gave the name of _Tusculanum_ to Cicero's villa, where that great orator wrote his Tusculan Questions.

TYRUS, an ancient city of Phœnicia, situate on an island so near the continent, that Alexander the Great formed it into a peninsula, by the mole or causey which he threw up during the siege. See Curtius, lib. iv. s. 7.

U.

UBIAN ALTAR, an altar erected by the Ubii, on their removal to the western side of the Rhine, in honour of Augustus; but whether this was at a different place, or the town of the Ubii, is not known.

UBII, a people originally of Germany, but transplanted by Augustus to the west side of the Rhine, under the conduct of _Agrippa_. Their capital was then for a long time called _Oppidum Ubiorum_, and, at last, changed by the empress Agrippina to _Colonia Agrippinensis_; now _Cologne_, the capital of the electorate of that name.

UMBRIA, a division of Italy, to the south-east of Etruria, between the Adriatic and the Nar.

UNSINGIS, a river of Germany, running into the sea, near _Groningen_; now the _Hunsing_.

URBINUM, now _Urbino_, a city for ever famous for having given birth to Raphael, the celebrated painter.

USIPII, or USIPETES, a people of Germany, who, after their expulsion by the Catti, settled near _Paderborn_. See Manners of the Germans, s. 32. and note a.

USPE, a town in the territory of the _Siraci_; now destroyed.

V.

VADA, a town on the left-hand side of the Nile, in the island of Batavia.

VAHALIS, a branch of the Rhine; now the Waal. See Manners of the Germans, s. 29. and note a.

VANGIONES, originally inhabitants of Germany, but afterwards settled in Gaul; now the diocese of _Worms_.

VASCONES, a people who inhabited near the Pyrenees, occupying lands both in Spain and Gaul.

VELABRUM, a place at Rome, between Mount Aventine and Mount Palatine, generally under water, from the overflowing of the Tiber. Propertius describes it elegantly, lib. iv. eleg. x.

Qua Velabra suo stagnabant flumine, quáque Nauta per urbanas velificabat aquas.

VELINUS, a lake in the country of the Sabines.

VENETI, a people of Gallia Celtica, who inhabited what is now called _Vannes_, in the south of Britanny, and also a considerable tract on the other side of the Alps, extending from the Po along the Adriatic, to the mouth of the _Ister_.

VERCELLÆ, now _Vercelli_ in Piedmont.

VERONA, now _Verona_, in the territory of Venice, on the _Adige_.

VESONTIUM, the capital of the Sequani; now _Besançon_, the chief city of Burgundy.

VETERA, i.e. Vetera Castra. The Old Camp, which was a fortified station for the legions; now _Santen_, in the duchy of Cleves, not far from the Rhine.

VIA SALARIA, a road leading from the salt-works at Ostia to the country of the Sabines.

VIADRUS, now the _Oder_, running through _Silesia_, _Brandenburg_, _Pomerania_, and discharging itself into the Baltic.

VICETIA, now _Vicenza_, a town in the territory of Venice.

VIENNÆ, a city of Narbonese Gaul; now _Vienne_, in _Dauphiné_.

VINDELICI, a people inhabiting the country of _Vindelicia_, near the Danube, with the Ræhti to the south; now part of _Bavaria_ and _Suabia_.

VINDONISSA, now _Windisch_, in the canton of Bern, in Swisserland.

VISURGIS, a river of Germany, made famous by the slaughter of Varus and his legions; now the _Weser_, running north between Westphalia and Lower Saxony, into the German Sea.

VOCETIUS MONS, a mountain of the Helvetii, thought to be the roughest part of Mount _Jura_, to which the Helvetii fled when defeated by Cæcina. See Hist. i. s. 67.

VOLSCI, a powerful people of ancient Latium, extending from _Antium_, their capital, to the _Upper Liris_, and the confines of _Campania_.

VULSINII, or VOLSINII, a city of Etruria, the native place of Sejanus; now _Bolseno_, or _Bolsenna_.

Z.

ZEUGMA, a town on the _Euphrates_, famous for a bridge over the river. See Pliny, lib, v. s. 24.