Part 1002

"In the fruitful plain, only traversed by low hills, which stretches from the northern declivity of Mount Cithæron to the Bœotian lakes opposite the narrowest part of the sound which separates Eubœa from the mainland, in the 'well-watered, pasture-bearing region of the Aones,' as Euripides says, lay the citadel and town of Thebes. According to Greek tradition, it was built by Cadmus the Phœnician. The Aones, who inhabited the country, are said to have amalgamated with the Phœnicians whom Cadmus brought with him, into one people. The citadel lay on a hill of moderate height between the streams Ismenus and Dirce; it bore even in historical times the name Cadmea; the ridge to the north of the town was called Phœnicium, i. e. mountain of the Phœnicians. In the story of Cadmus and Europa, Greek legend relates the Phœnician mythus of Melkarth and Astarte. In order to seek the lost goddess of the moon, Astarte, Cadmus-Melkarth, the wandering sun-god, sets forth. He finds her in the far west, in Bœotia, and here in Thebes, on the Cadmea, celebrates the holy marriage. … There are a few relics of the wall of the citadel of Cadmea, principally on the north side; they are great blocks, not quite regularly hewn. Of the city wall and the famous seven gates in it nothing remains; even this number seven points to the Phœnicians as well as the designations which were retained by these gates even in historical times. The Electric gate belonged to the sun-god Baal, called by the Greeks Elector; the Neitic gate, it would seem, to the god of war. … {3105} The gate Hypsistia was that of Zeus Hypsistos, whose shrine stood on the Cadmea; … the Prœtidic gate belonged to Astarte, whose domain was the moon; the Oncæic gate in the north-west belonged to Athena Onca, who is expressly called a Phœnician goddess. … It is probable that the two remaining gates, the Homoloic and the Crenaic, were also dedicated to gods of this circle—to the spirits of planets. According to Greek legend, Cadmus invented the building of walls, mining, armour, and letters. Herodotus contents himself with saying that the Phœnicians who came with Cadmus taught much to the Greeks, even writing: from the Phœnicians the Ionians, in whose midst they lived, had learned letters. If even this early borrowing of writing on the part of the Greeks is incorrect, all the other particulars,—the legend of Cadmus, which extends to the Homeric poems, where the inhabitants of Thebes are called Cadmeans; the rites of the Thebans; the walls and gates,— taken together, give evidence that the Phœnicians went over from Eubœa to the continent, and here fixed one of their most important and lasting colonies upon and around the hill of Cadmea."

_M. Duncker, History of Greece, book 1, chapter 4._

See, also, BŒOTIA.

THEBES, Greece: B. C. 509-506. Unsuccessful war with Athens.

See ATHENS: B. C. 509-506.

THEBES, Greece: B. C. 480. Traitorous alliance with the Persians.

See GREECE: B. C. 480 (SALAMIS).

THEBES, Greece: B. C. 479. Siege and reduction by the confederate Greeks. Punishment for the Persian alliance.

See GREECE: B. C. 479 (PLATÆA).

THEBES, Greece: B. C. 457-456. War with Athens. Defeat at Œnophyta. Overthrow of the oligarchies.

See GREECE: B. C. 458-456.

THEBES, Greece: B. C. 447-445. Bœotian revolution. Overthrow of Athenian influence. Defeat of Athens at Coronea.

See GREECE: B. C. 449-445.

THEBES, Greece: B. C. 431. Disastrous attack on Platæa. Opening hostilities of the Peloponnesian War.

See GREECE: B. C. 432-431.

THEBES, Greece: B. C. 404-403. Shelter and aid to Athenian patriots.

See ATHENS: B. C. 404-403.

THEBES, Greece: B. C. 395-387. Confederacy against Sparta and alliance with Persia. The Corinthian War. Battle of Coronea. Peace of Antalcidas.

See GREECE: B. C. 399-387.

THEBES, Greece: B. C. 383. The betrayal of the city to the Spartans.

See GREECE: B. C. 383.

THEBES, Greece: B. C. 379-371. The liberation of the city. Rise of Epaminondas. Overthrow of Spartan supremacy at Leuctra.

See GREECE: B. C. 379-371.

THEBES, Greece: B. C. 378. The Sacred Band.

"This was an institution connecting itself with earlier usages of the land. For already in the battle of Delium a band of the Three Hundred is mentioned, who fought, like the heroes of the Homeric age, associated in pairs, from their chariots in front of the main body of the soldiery. This doubtless very ancient institution was now [B. C. 378] revived and carried out in a new spirit under the guidance of Epaminondas and Gorgidas. They had quietly assembled around them a circle of youths, with whom they had presented themselves before the community on the day of the Liberation, so that they were regarded as the founders of the Sacred Band of Thebes. It was now no longer a privilege of the nobility to belong to the Three Hundred; but those among the youth of the land who were in feeling the noblest and most high-minded, and who already under the oppression of the Tyrants had been preparing themselves for the struggle for freedom, were henceforth the elect and the champions. It was their duty to stimulate the rest eagerly to follow their example of bravery and discipline; they were associated with one another by the bonds of friendship and by identity of feelings. … A soldier-like spirit was happily blended with ethical and political points of view, and ancient national usage with the ideas of the present and with Pythagorean principles; and it constitutes an honorable monument of the wisdom of Epaminondas."

_E. Curtius, History of Greece, book 6, chapter 1._

THEBES, Greece: B. C. 370-362. Intervention in Peloponnesus. Successive expeditions of Epaminondas. Invasions of Sparta. Formation of the Arcadian Union. Battle of Mantinea and death of Epaminondas.

See GREECE: B. C. 371-362.

THEBES, Greece: B. C. 357-338. The Ten Years Sacred War with the Phocians. Intervention of Philip of Macedon. Loss of independence and liberty.

See GREECE: B. C. 357-336.

THEBES, Greece: B. C. 335. Revolt. Destruction by Alexander the Great.

See GREECE: B. C. 336-335.

THEBES, Greece: B. C. 316. Restoration by Cassander of Macedonia.

See GREECE: B. C. 321-312.

THEBES, Greece: B. C. 291-290. Siege of by Demetrius.

Thebes, with other Bœotian towns, united in a revolt against Demetrius Poliorcetes, while the latter held the throne of Macedonia, and was reduced to submission, B. C. 290, after a siege which lasted nearly a year.

_C. Thirlwall, History of Greece, chapter 60._

THEBES, Greece: A. D. 1146. Sack by the Normans of Sicily. Abduction of silk-weavers.

See BYZANTINE EMPIRE: A. D. 1146.

THEBES, Greece: A. D. 1205. Included in the Latin duchy of Athens.

See ATHENS: A. D. 1205.

THEBES, Greece: A. D. 1311. Conquest by the Catalans.

See CATALAN GRAND COMPANY.

THEBES, Greece: End--------

THEGN, THANE.

See COMITATUS; ETHEL; and ENGLAND: A. D. 958.

THEIPHALI. THEIPHALIA.

See TAIFALÆ.

THEMES.

Administrative divisions of the Byzantine Empire. "The term thema was first applied to the Roman legion. The military districts, garrisoned by legions, were then called themata, and ultimately the word was used merely to indicate geographical administrative divisions."

_G. Finlay, History of the Byzantine Empire, book 1, chapter 1, section 1, foot-note._

See, also, BYZANTINE EMPIRE: A. D. 717.

THEMISTOCLES, Ascendancy and fall of.

See ATHENS: B. C. 489-480, to 477-462.

THEODORA, Empress in the East (Byzantine, or Greek), A. D. 1042, and 1054-1056.

THEODORE, King of Corsica.

See CORSICA: A. D. 1729-1769.

Theodore I., Pope, A. D. 642-649.

Theodore II., Pope, 898.

Theodore or Feodore, II., Czar of Russia, 1584-1598.

Theodore III., Czar of Russia, 1676-1682.

Theodore Lascaris I., Greek Emperor of Nicæa, 1206-1222.

Theodore Lascaris II., Greek Emperor of Nicæa, 1255-1259.

THEODORIC, Ostrogothic kingdom of.

See GOTHS: A. D. 473-488; and ROME: A. D. 488-526.

{3106}

THEODOSIAN CODE, The.

See CORPUS JURIS CIVILIS.

THEODOSIUS I., Roman Emperor (Eastern), A. D. 378-395; (Western), 392-395; in Britain.

See BRITAIN: A. D. 367-370.

Theodosius II., Roman Emperor (Eastern), 408-450; (Western), 423-425.

Theodosius III., Roman Emperor (Eastern), 716-717.

THEOPHILUS, Emperor in the East, (Byzantine, or Greek), A. D. 829-842.

THEORI.

The name of Theori, among the ancient Greeks, "in addition to its familiar signification of spectators at the theatre and public ambassadors to foreign sanctuaries and festivals, was specially applied to certain public magistrates, whose function it was to superintend and take charge of religious affairs in general, though they often possessed along with this some more extensive political power."

_G. Schumann, Antiquities of Greece: The State, part 2, chapter 5._

THEORICON, The.

"By means of the Theoricon …, the most pernicious issue of the age of Pericles, there arose in a small free state [Athens] a lavish expenditure, which was relatively not less than in the most voluptuous courts, and which consumed large sums, while the wars were unsuccessful for the want of money. By it is understood the money which was distributed among the people for the celebration of the festivals and games, partly to restore to the citizens the sum required for their admission into the theatre, partly to enable them to procure a better meal. In part it was expended for sacrifices, with which a public feast was connected. … The superintendents of the theoricon were not called treasurers; but they evidently had a treasury. Their office was one of the administrative offices of the government, and indeed of the most eminent. They were elected by the assembly of the people through cheirotonia. Their office seems to have been annual. Their number is nowhere given. Probably there were ten of them, one from each tribe. … The Athenian people was a tyrant, and the treasury of the theorica its private treasury."

_A. Boeckh, Public Economy of Athens (translated by Lamb), book 2, chapter 7; also chapter 13._

THEOW.

"In the earliest English laws … slaves are found; the 'theow' [from the same root as 'dienen,' to serve] or slave simple, whether 'wealh'—that is, of British extraction, captured or purchased—or of the common German stock descended from the slaves of the first colonists; the 'esne' or slave who works for hire; the 'wite-theow' who is reduced to slavery because he cannot pay his debts."

_W. Stubbs, Constitutional History of England, chapter 5, section 37._

THERA.

The ancient name of the Greek island of Santorin, one of the Sporades, whose inhabitants were enterprising navigators, and weavers and dyers of purple stuffs. They are said to have founded Cyrene, on the north African coast.

_E. Curtius, History of Greece, book 2, chapter 3._

See CYRENAICA.

"The island was the site of one of the largest volcanic eruptions in recorded history … about [1600 B. C.] at the height of the Minoan civilization."

_Wikipedia: Santorini. Transcriber's Note._

THERMÆ.

"The Roman thermæ were a combination on a huge scale of the common balneæ with the Greek gymnasia. Their usual form was that of a large quadrangular space, the sides of which were formed by various porticos, exedræ, and even theatres for gymnastic and literary exercises, and in the centre of which stood a block of buildings containing the bath rooms and spacious halls for undergoing the complicated process of the Roman warm bath. The area covered by the whole group of buildings was, in many cases, very large. The court of the Baths of Caracalla enclosed a space of 1,150 feet on each side, with curvilinear projections on two sides. The central mass of building was a rectangle, 730 feet by 380. … The other great Imperial thermæ of Rome, those of Nero, Titus, Domitian, Diocletian, and Constantine, were probably upon the same plan as the Thermæ Caracallæ. All were built of brick, and the interior was decorated with stucco, mosaics, or slabs of marble, and other ornamental stones. … The public balneæ, as distinct from thermæ, … were used simply as baths, and had none of the luxurious accessories attached to them which were found in the courts of the great thermæ."

_R. Burn, Rome and the Campagna, introduction._

THERMIDOR, The month.

See FRANCE; A. D. 1793 (OCTOBER) THE NEW REPUBLICAN CALENDAR.

THERMIDORIANS. The Ninth of Thermidor.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1794 (JULY), and 1794-1795 (JULY-APRIL).

THERMOPYLÆ, The Pass of.

See THESSALY.

THERMOPYLÆ, The Pass of: B. C. 480. The defense by Leonidas against the Persians.

See GREECE: B. C. 480 (THERMOPYLÆ).

THERMOPYLÆ, The Pass of: B. C. 352. Repulse of Philip of Macedon.

See GREECE: B. C. 357-330.

THERMOPYLÆ, The Pass of: B. C. 279. Defense against the Gauls.

See GAULS: B. C. 280-279.

THERMOPYLÆ, The Pass of: B. C. 191. Defeat of Antiochus by the Romans.

See SELEUCIDÆ: B. C. 224-187.

THERMOPYLÆ, The Pass of: A. D. 1822. Greek victory over the Turks.

See GREECE: A. D. 1821-1829.

THERVINGI, The.

See GOTHS (VISIGOTHS): A. D. 376.

THESES OF LUTHER, The Ninety-five.

See PAPACY: A. D. 1517.

THESMOPHORIA, The.

See GREECE: B. C. 383.

THESMOTHETES.

See ATHENS: FROM THE DORIAN MIGRATION TO B. C. 683.

THESPROTIANS.

See EPIRUS; and HELLAS.

THESSALONICA: Start--------

THESSALONICA.

Therma, an unimportant ancient city of Macedonia, received the name of Thessalonica, about 315 B. C., in honor of the sister of Alexander the Great, who married Cassander. Cassander gave an impetus to the city which proved lasting. It rose to a high commercial rank, acquired wealth, and became, under the Romans, the capital of the Illyrian provinces.

THESSALONICA: A. D. 390. Massacre ordered by Theodosius.

A riotous outbreak at Thessalonica, A. D. 390, caused by the imprisonment of one of the popular favorites of the circus, was punished by the Emperor Theodosius in a manner so fiendish that it seems wellnigh incredible. He caused the greatest possible number of the inhabitants to be invited, in his name, to witness certain games in the circus. "As soon as the assembly was complete, the soldiers, who had secretly been posted round the circus, received the signal, not of the races, but of a general massacre. {3107} The promiscuous carnage continued three hours, without discrimination of strangers or natives, of age or sex, of innocence or guilt; the most moderate accounts state the number of the slain at 7,000; and it is affirmed by some writers that more than 15,000 victims were sacrificed. … The guilt of the emperor is aggravated by his long and frequent residence at Thessalonica."

_E. Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapter 27._

THESSALONICA: A. D. 904. Capture and pillage by the Saracens.

The capture of Thessalonica by a piratical expedition from Tarsus, A. D. 904, was one of the most terrible experiences of its kind in that age of blood and rapine, and one of which the fullest account, by an eye-witness and sufferer, has come down to posterity. The wretched inhabitants who escaped the sword were mostly sold into slavery, and the splendid city—then the second in the Byzantine Empire—was stripped of all its wealth. The defense of the place had been neglected, with implicit dependence on the goodwill and the power of St. Demetrius.

_G. Finlay, History of the Byzantine Empire, from 716 to 1057, book 2, chapter 1, section 2._

THESSALONICA: A. D. 1204-1222. Capital of the kingdom of Saloniki.

See SALONIKI.

THESSALONICA: A. D. 1222-1234. The Greek empire.

See EPIRUS: A. D. 1204-1350.

THESSALONICA: A. D. 1430. Capture by the Turks.

Thessalonica, feebly defended by Venetians and Greeks, was taken by the Turks, under Amurath II., in February, 1430. "'The pillage and the carnage,' relates the Greek Anagnosta, an eye-witness of this disastrous night, 'transcended the hopes of the Turks and the terror of the Greeks. No family escaped the swords, the chains, the flames, the outrages of the Asiatics fierce for their prey. At the close of the day, each soldier drove like a herd before him, through the streets of Salonica, troops of women, of young girls, of children, of caloyers and anchorites, of monks of all the monasteries. Priests were chained with virgins, children with old men, mothers with their sons, in derision of age, of profession, of sex, which added a barbarous irony to nudity and death itself.'"

_A. Lamartine, History of Turkey, book 10, section 27._

THESSALONICA: End--------

THESSALY.

"The northern part of Greece is traversed in its whole length by a range of mountains, the Greek Apennines, which issue from the same mighty root, the Thracian Scomius, in which Hæmus, and Rhodopé and the Illyrian Alps likewise meet. This ridge first takes the name of Pindus, where it intersects the northern boundary of Greece, at a point where an ancient route still affords the least difficult passage from Epirus into Thessaly. From Pindus two huge arms stretch towards the eastern sea and enclose the vale of Thessaly, the largest and richest plain in Greece: on the north the Cambunian Hills, after making a bend towards the south, terminate in the loftier heights of Olympus, which are scarcely ever entirely free from snow; the opposite and lower chain of Othrys parting, with its eastern extremity, the Malian from the Pagasæan Gulf, sinks gently towards the coast. A fourth rampart, which runs parallel to Pindus, is formed by the range which includes the celebrated heights of Pelion and Ossa; the first a broad and nearly even ridge, the other towering into a steep and conical peak, the neighbour and rival of Olympus, with which, in the songs of the country, it is said to dispute the pre-eminence in the depth and duration of its snows. The mountain barrier with which Thessaly is thus encompassed is broken only at the northeast corner by a deep and narrow cleft, which parts Ossa from Olympus; the defile so renowned in poetry as the vale, in history as the pass, of Tempe. The imagination of the ancient poets and declaimers delighted to dwell on the natural beauties of this romantic glen and on the sanctity of the site, from which Apollo had transplanted his laurel to Delphi. … South of this gulf [the Gulf of Pagasæ], the coast is again deeply indented by that of Malia, into which the Spercheius, rising from Mount Tymphrestus, a continuation of Pindus, winds through a long, narrow vale, which, though considered as a part of Thessaly, forms a separate region, widely distinguished from the rest by its physical features. It is intercepted between Othrys and Œta, a huge, rugged pile, which stretching from Pindus to the sea at Thermopylæ, forms the inner barrier of Greece, as the Cambunian range is the outer, to which it corresponds in direction and is nearly equal in height. From Mount Callidromus, a southern limb of Œta, the same range is continued without interruption, though under various names and different degrees of elevation, along the coast of the Eubœan Sea. … Another branch, issuing from the same part of Pindus, connects it with the loftier summits of Parnassus, and afterward skirting the Corinthian Gulf under the names of Cirphis and Helicon, proceeds to form the northern boundary of Attica under those of Cithæron and Parnes."

_C. Thirlwall, History of Greece, chapter 1 (volume 1)._

In the mythical legends of Greece, Thessaly was the kingdom of Hellen, transmitted to his son Æolus and occupied originally by the Æolic branch of the Hellenic family. The Æolians, however, appear to have receded from the rich Thessalian plain, into Bœotia and elsewhere, before various invading tribes. The people who fixed their name, at last, upon the country, the Thessalians, came into it from Epirus, crossing the Pindus mountain-range.

See, also, GREECE: THE MIGRATIONS; and DORIANS AND IONIANS.

THETES, The.

See DEBT, ANCIENT LEGISLATION CONCERNING: GREEK; also, ATHENS: B. C. 594.

THEUDEBERT, King of the Franks (Austrasia), A. D. 596-612.

THIASI.

"The name denotes associations [in ancient Athens] which had chosen as their special protector and patron some deity in whose honour at certain times they held sacrifices and festal banquets, whilst they pursued in addition objects of a very varied nature, sometimes joint-stock businesses, sometimes only social enjoyments."

_G. F. Schömann, Antiquities of Greece, part 3, chapter 3, section 2._

THIBAULT I., King of Navarre, A. D. 1236-1253.

Thibault II., King of Navarre, 1253-1270.

THIBET.

See TIBET.

THIERRY I., King of the Franks, at Metz, A. D. 511-534.

Thierry II., King of the Franks (Austrasia), 612-613; King of Burgundy, 596-613.

Thierry III., King of the Franks (Neustria and Burgundy), 670-691.

Thierry IV., King of the Franks (Neustria, Austrasia, and Burgundy), 720-737.

{3108}

THIERS, Adolphe, and the founding of the third French Republic.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1871-1876.

THIN. THINÆ.

See CHINA: The NAMES OF THE COUNTRY.

THING. THINGVALLA. ALTHING.

"The judicial and legislative assembly of the Northmen represented by the word 'thing' (from 'tinga'=to speak, and allied to our English word 'think') can be traced in many local names throughout England, and more especially in the extreme North, where the Scandinavian race prevailed, and where the 'thing' was primitively held upon the site of, or as an appanage to, a 'hof' or temple. It is plainly seen in the Tynwald Court or general legislative assembly for the Isle of Man, where the distinctive feature of the primitive open-air assembly still survives in the custom of the whole assembly going once a year in solemn procession, attended by the governor of the island and a military escort, to a hill known as the Tynwald Hill, whence all the laws that have been passed in the course of the past year are proclaimed in English and Manx. … In Norway there is an 'Al-thing' or general assembly, and four district 'things' for the several provinces, as well as a Norwegian Parliament familiar to us as 'Stor-thing' or great council."

_R. R. Sharpe, Introduction to Calendar of Wills, Court of Husting, London, volume 1._