Part 1003

"By the end of the period of the first occupation of Iceland, a number of little kingdoms had been formed all round the coast, ruled by the priests, who, at stated times, convened their adherents and retainers to meetings for the settlement of matters which concerned any or all of them. These were called 'Things'—meetings, i. e. Mot-things. Each was independent of the other, and quarrels between the members of two separate Things could only be settled as the quarrels of nations are settled, by treaty or war. But the time soon arrived when the progress of political thought began to work upon this disjointed constitution; and then amalgamation of local Things into an Althing, of local jurisdiction into a commonwealth jurisdiction, was the historical result. … The Thingvalla, or Thing-field itself, was a vast sunken plain of lava, about four miles broad and rather more than four miles deep, lying with a dip or slope from north-east to south-west, between two great lips or furrows. A stream called Öxará, (Axewater) cuts off a rocky portion of the plain, so as almost to form an island. This is the famous Hill of Laws, or Lögberg, which was the heart of the Icelandic body politic. … This example of the Icelandic Thing is the most perfect that is known to history."

_G. L. Gomme, Primitive Folk-Moots, chapter 2._

ALSO IN: _G. W. Dasent, introduction to "The Story of Burnt Njal."_

See, also, NORMANS. NORTHMEN: A. D. 860-1100; and SCANDINAVIAN STATES (DENMARK-ICELAND): A. D. 1849-1874.

THINGMEN.

See HOUSECARLS.

THINIS.

See MEMPHIS, EGYPT; also EGYPT: THE OLD EMPIRE AND THE MIDDLE EMPIRE.

THIONVILLE: A. D. 1643. Siege and capture by the French.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1643.

THIONVILLE: A. D. 1659. Ceded to France.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1659-1661.

THIRD ESTATE, The.

See ESTATES, THE THREE.

THIRTEEN COLONIES, The.

See MASSACHUSETTS; RHODE ISLAND; CONNECTICUT; NEW HAMPSHIRE; NEW YORK; NEW JERSEY; PENNSYLVANIA; DELAWARE: MARYLAND; VIRGINIA; NORTH CAROLINA; SOUTH CAROLINA; GEORGIA;

also, NEW ENGLAND.

THIRTEENTH AMENDMENT.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1865 (JANUARY).

THIRTY TYRANTS OF ATHENS, The.

See ATHENS: B. C. 404-403.

THIRTY TYRANTS OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, The.

See ROME: A. D. 192-284.

THIRTY YEARS TRUCE, The.

See GREECE: B. C. 449-445.

THIRTY YEARS WAR, The.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1608-1618, to 1648: and BOHEMIA: A. D. 1611-1618, and 1621-1648.

THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES, The.

"In 1563 the Articles of the English Church, forty-two in number, originally drawn up in 1551 under Edward VI., were revised in Convocation, and reduced to their present number, thirty-nine; but it was not until 1571 that they were made binding upon the clergy by Act of Parliament."

_T. P. Taswell-Langmead, English Constitutional History, chapter 12._

THIS, THINIS.

See EGYPT: THE OLD EMPIRE AND THE MIDDLE EMPIRE; also, MEMPHIS, EGYPT.

THISTLE: Its adoption as the national emblem of Scotland.

See SAINT ANDREW: THE SCOTTISH ORDER.

THISTLE, Order of the.

A Scottish order of knighthood instituted by James V. in 1530.

THOMAS, General George H.: Campaign against Zollicoffer.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (JANUARY-FEBRUARY: KENTUCKY-TENNESSEE).

Refusal of the command of the Army of the Ohio.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (JUNE-OCTOBER: TENNESSEE-KENTUCKY).

At Chickamauga, and in the Chattanooga Campaign.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863 (AUGUST-SEPTEMBER) ROSECRANS' ADVANCE; and (OCTOBER-NOVEMBER: TENNESSEE).

The Atlanta campaign.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864 (MAY: GEORGIA), to (SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER: GEORGIA).

Campaign against Hood.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864 (NOVEMBER: TENNESSEE), and (DECEMBER: TENNESSEE).

THOMAS À BECKET, Saint, and King Henry II.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1162-1170.

THOMPSON'S STATION, Battle at.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863 (FEBRUARY-APRIL: TENNESSEE).

THORN, Peace of (1466).

See POLAND: A. D. 1333-1572.

"THOROUGH," Wentworth and Laud's government system.

See IRELAND: A. D. 1633-1639.

THRACE: B. C. 323-281. The kingdom of Lysimachus and its overthrow.

See MACEDONIA, &c.: B. C. 323-316 to 297-280.

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THRACIANS, The.

"That vast space comprised between the rivers Strymon and Danube, and bounded to the west by the easternmost Illyrian tribes, northward of the Strymon, was occupied by the innumerable subdivisions of the race called Thracians, or Threïcians. They were the most numerous and most terrible race known to Herodotus: could they by possibility act in unison or under one dominion (he says) they would be irresistible. … Numerous as the tribes of Thracians were, their customs and character (according to Herodotus) were marked by great uniformity: of the Getæ, the Trausi, and others, he tells us a few particularities. … The general character of the race presents an aggregate of repulsive features unredeemed by the presence of even the commonest domestic affections. … It appears that the Thynians and Bithynians, on the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus, perhaps also the Mysians, were members of this great Thracian race, which was more remotely connected, also, with the Phrygians. And the whole race may be said to present a character more Asiatic than European; especially in those ecstatic and maddening religious rites, which prevailed not less among the Edonian Thracians than in the mountains of Ida and Dindymon of Asia, though with some important differences. The Thracians served to furnish the Greeks with mercenary troops and slaves."

_G. Grote, History of Greece, part 2, chapter 26._

"Under Seuthes [B. C. 424] Thrace stood at the height of its prosperity. It formed a connected empire from Abdera to the Danube, from Byzantium to the Strymon. … The land abounded in resources, in corn and flocks and herds, in gold and silver. … No such state had as yet existed in the whole circuit of the Ægean. … But their kingdom failed to endure. After Seuthes it broke up into several principalities."

_E. Curtius, History of Greece, book 7, chapter 1._

"Herodotus is not wrong in calling the Thracians the greatest of the peoples known to him after the Indians. Like the Illyrian, the Thracian stock attained to no full development, and appears more as hard-pressed and dispossessed than as having any historically memorable course of its own. … The Thracian [language] disappeared amidst the fluctuations of peoples in the region of the Danube and the overpowerful influence of Constantinople, and we cannot even determine the place which belongs to it in the pedigree of nations. … Their wild but grand mode of worshipping the gods may perhaps be conceived as a trait peculiar to this stock—the mighty outburst of the joy of spring and youth, the nocturnal mountain-festivals of torch-swinging maidens, the intoxicating sense-confusing music, the flowing of wine and the flowing of blood, the giddy festal whirl, frantic with the simultaneous excitement of all sensuous passions. Dionysos, the glorious and the terrible, was a Thracian god." Under the supremacy of the Romans, the Thracians were governed by a native line of vassal kings, reigning at Bizye (Wiza), between Adrianople and the coast of the Black Sea, until the Emperor Claudius, A. D. 46, suppressed the nominal kingdom and made Thrace a Roman province.

_T. Mommsen, History of Rome, book 8, chapter 6._

In the 8th and 9th centuries, "the great Thracian race, which had once been inferior in number only to the Indian, and which, in the first century of our era, had excited the attention of Vespasian by the extent of the territory it occupied, had … almost disappeared. The country it had formerly inhabited was peopled by Vallachian and Sclavonian tribes."

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

THREE CHAPTERS, The dispute of the.

A famous church dispute raised in the sixth century by the Emperor Justinian, who discovered an heretical taint in certain passages, called the Three Chapters, culled out of the works of Theodore of Mopsuestia and two other doctors of the church who had been teachers and friends of Nestorius. A solemn Church Council called (A. D. 553) at Constantinople—the fifth general Council—condemned the Three Chapters and anathematized their adherents. But this touched by implication the decrees of the Council of Chalcedon, which were especially cherished in the Latin Church, and Rome became rebellious. In the end, the Roman opposition prevailed, and, "in the period of a century, the schism of the three chapters expired in an obscure angle of the Venetian province."

_E. Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapter 47._

ALSO IN: _H. H. Milman, History of Latin Christianity, book 1, chapter 4._

THREE F'S. The.

See IRELAND: A. D. 1873-1879.

THREE HENRYS. War of the.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1584-1589.

THREE HUNDRED AT THERMOPYLÆ, The.

See GREECE: B. C. 480 (THERMOPYLÆ).

THREE HUNDRED OF THEBES, The.

See THEBES: B. C. 378.

THREE KINGS, Battle of the.

See MAROCCO: THE ARAB CONQUEST, AND SINCE.

THREE LEGS OF MAN. The.

See TRISKELION.

THREE PRESIDENCIES OF INDIA, The.

See INDIA: A. D. 1600-1702.

THUCYDIDES: The origin of his history.

See AMPHIPOLIS.

THUGS. THUGGEE.

See INDIA: A. D. 1823-1833.

THULE.

Pytheas, a Greek traveller and writer of the time (as supposed) of Alexander the Great, was the first to introduce the name of Thule into ancient geography. He described it vaguely as an island, lying six days' voyage to the north of Britain, in a region where the sea became like neither land nor water, but was of a thick and sluggish substance, resembling that of the jelly fish. "It appears to me impossible to identify the Thule of Pytheas with any approach to certainty; but he had probably heard vaguely of the existence of some considerable island, or group of islands, to the north of Britain, whether the Orkneys or the Shetlands it is impossible to say."

_E. H. Bunbury, History of Ancient Geography, chapter 15, section 2, foot-note._

Some modern writers identify Thule with Iceland; some with the coast of Norway, mistakenly regarded as an island. But, whichever land it may have been, Thule to the Greeks and Romans, was Ultima Thule,—the end of the known world,—the most northerly point of Europe to which their knowledge reached.

_R. F. Burton, Ultima Thule, introduction, section 1 (volume 1)._

{3110}

THUNDERING LEGION, The.

During the summer of the year 174, in a campaign which the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus conducted against the Quadi, on the Danube, the Roman army was once placed in a perilous position. It was hemmed in by the enemy, cut off from all access to water, and was reduced to despair. At the last extremity, it is said, the army was saved by a miraculous storm, which poured rain on the thirsty Romans, while lightning and hail fell destructively in the ranks of the barbarians. According to the Pagan historians, Aurelius owed this "miraculous victory," as it was called, to the arts of one Arnuphis, an Egyptian magician. But later Christian writers told a different story. They relate that the distressed army contained one legion composed entirely of Christians, from Melitene, and that these soldiers, being called upon by the emperor to invoke their God, united in a prayer which received the answer described. Hence, the legion was known thereafter, by imperial command, as the Thundering Legion.

_P. B. Watson, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, chapter 5._

ALSO IN: _Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, book 5, chapter 5._

THURII. THURIUM.

See SIRIS.

THURINGIA. THURINGIANS, The.

"To the eastward of the Saxons and of the Franks, the Thuringians had just formed a new monarchy. That people had united to the Varni and the Heruli, they had spread from the borders of the Elbe and of the Undstrut to those of the Necker. They had invaded Hesse or the country of the Catti, one of the Frankish people, and Franconia, where they had distinguished their conquests by frightful cruelties. … It is not known at what period these atrocities were committed, but Thierri [or Theoderic, one of the four Frank kings, sons of Clovis] towards the year 528, reminds his soldiers of them to excite their revenge; it is probable that they were the motives which induced the Franks of Germany and those of Gaul to unite, in order to provide more powerfully for their defence." Thierry, the Frank king at Metz, and Clotaire, his brother, who reigned at Soissons, united in 528 against the Thuringians and completely crushed them. "This great province was then united to the monarchy of the Franks, and its dukes, during two centuries, marched under the standards of the Merovingians."

_J. C. L. S. de Sismondi, The French under the Merovingians, chapter 6._

ALSO IN: _W. C. Perry, The Franks, chapter 3._

See, also, GERMANY: A. D. 481-768.

THURINGIA: Absorbed in Saxony.

See SAXONY: THE OLD DUCHY.

THURM AND TAXIS, Prince, and the German postal system.

See POST.

THYMBRÆAN ORACLE.

See ORACLES OF THE GREEKS.

THYNIANS. The.

See BITHYNIANS.

TIBARENIANS, The.

A people who anciently inhabited the southern coast of the Euxine, toward its eastern extremity.

_G. Rawlinson, Five Great Monarchies: Persia, chapter 1._

TIBBOOS, The.

See LIBYANS.

TIBERIAS, Battle of (1187).

See JERUSALEM: A. D. 1149-1187.

TIBERIAS, The Patriarch of.

See JEWS: A. D. 200-400.

TIBERIUS, Roman Emperor, A. D. 14-37.

German campaigns.

See GERMANY: B. C. 8-A. D. 11.

Tiberius II, Roman Emperor (Eastern), 578-582.

Tiberius Absimarus, Roman Emperor (Eastern), 698-704.

TIBET.

"The name of Tibet is applied not only to the south-west portion of the Chinese Empire, but also to more than half of Kashmîr occupied by peoples of Tibetan origin. These regions of 'Little Tibet' and of 'Apricot Tibet' —so called from the orchards surrounding its villages—consist of deep valleys opening like troughs between the snowy Himalayan and Karakorum ranges. Draining towards India, these uplands have gradually been brought under Hindu influences, whereas Tibet proper has pursued a totally different career. It is variously known as 'Great,' the 'Third,' or 'East Tibet'; but such is the confusion of nomenclature that the expression 'Great Tibet' is also applied to Ladak, which forms part of Kashmîr. At the same time, the term Tibet itself, employed by Europeans to designate two countries widely differing in their physical and political conditions, is unknown to the people themselves. Hermann Schlagintweit regards it as an old Tibetan word meaning 'strength,' or 'empire' in a pre-eminent sense and this is the interpretation supplied by the missionaries of the seventeenth century, who give the country the Italian name of Potente, or 'Powerful.' But however this be, the present inhabitants use the term Bod-yul alone; that is, 'land of the Bod,' itself probably identical with Bhutan, a Hindu name restricted by Europeans to a single state on the southern slope of the Himalayas. The Chinese call Tibet either Si-Tsang —that is, West Tsang, from its principal province—or Wei-Tsang, a word applied to the two provinces of Wei and Tsang, which jointly constitute Tibet proper. To the inhabitants they give the name of Tu-Fan, or 'Aboriginal Fans,' in opposition to the Si-Fan, or "Western Fans,' of Sechuen and Kansu. … Suspended like a vast terrace some 14,000 or 16,000 feet above the surrounding plains, the Tibetan plateau is more than half filled with closed basins dotted with a few lakes or marshes, the probable remains of inland seas whose overflow discharged through the breaks in the frontier ranges. … During the present century the Tibetan Government has succeeded better than any other Asiatic state in preserving the political isolation of the people, thanks chiefly to the relief and physical conditions of the land. Tibet rises like a citadel in the heart of Asia; hence its defenders have guarded its approaches more easily than those of India, China, and Japan. The greater part of Tibet remains still unexplored. … The great bulk of the inhabitants, apart from the Mongolo-Tartar Horsoks of Khachi and the various independent tribes of the province of Kham, belong to a distinct branch of the Mongolian family. They are of low size, with broad shoulders and chests, and present a striking contrast to the Hindus in the size of their arms and calves, while resembling them in their small and delicate hands and feet. … The Tibetans are one of the most highly endowed people in the world. Nearly all travellers are unanimous in praise of their gentleness, frank and kindly bearing, unaffected dignity. Strong, courageous, naturally cheerful, fond of music, the dance and song, they would be a model race but for their lack of enterprise. They are as easily governed as a flock of sheep, and for them the word of a lama has force of law. Even the mandates of the Chinese authorities are scrupulously obeyed, and thus it happens that against their own friendly feelings they jealously guard the frontiers against all strangers. {3111} The more or less mixed races of East Tibet on the Chinese frontier, on the route of the troops that plunder them and of the mandarins who oppress them, seem to be less favourably constituted, and are described as thievish and treacherous. … The Tibetans have long been a civilised people. … In some respects they are even more civilised than those of many European countries, for reading and writing are general accomplishments in many places, and books are here so cheap that they are found in the humblest dwellings, though several of these works are kept simply on account of their magical properties. In the free evolution of their speech, which has been studied chiefly by Foucaux, Csoma de Körös, Schiefner, and Jäschke, the Tibetans have outlived the period in which the Chinese are still found. The monosyllabic character of the language, which differs from all other Asiatic tongues, has nearly been effaced. … The Tibetan Government is in theory a pure theocracy. The Dalia-lama, called also the Gyalba-remboché, 'Jewel of Majesty,' or 'Sovereign Treasure,' is at once god and king, master of the life and fortunes of his subjects, with no limit to his power except his own pleasure. [On Lamaism in Tibet, see LAMAS.] Nevertheless he consents to be guided in ordinary matters by the old usages, while his very greatness prevents him from directly oppressing his people. His sphere of action being restricted to spiritual matters, he is represented in the administration by a viceroy chosen by the Emperor in a supreme council of three high priests. … Everything connected with general politics and war must be referred to Peking, while local matters are left to the Tibetan authorities. … Pope, viceroy, ministers, all receive a yearly subvention from Peking and all the Tibetan mandarins wear on their hats the button, or distinctive sign of the dignities conferred by the empire. Every third or fifth year a solemn embassy is sent to Peking with rich presents, receiving others in exchange from the 'Son of Heaven.' … The whole land belongs to the Dalai-lama, the people being merely temporary occupants, tolerated by the real owner. The very houses and furniture and all movable property are held in trust for the supreme master, whose subjects must be grateful if he takes a portion only for the requirements of the administration. Due of the most ordinary sentences, in fact, is wholesale confiscation, when the condemned must leave house and lands, betaking themselves to a camp life, and living by begging in the districts assigned to them. So numerous are these chong long, or official mendicants, that they form a distinct class in the State. … Since the cession of Ladak to Kashmir, and the annexation of Batang, Litang, Aten-tze, and other districts to Sechuen and Yunnan, Si-tsang, or Tibet proper, comprises only the four provinces of Nari, Tsang, Wei, or U, and Kham. Certain principalities enclosed in these provinces are completely independent of Lassa, and either enjoy self-government or are directly administered from Peking. … Even in the four provinces the Chinese authorities interfere in many ways, and their power is especially felt in that of Nari, where, owing to its dangerous proximity to Kashmir and India, the old spirit of independence might be awakened. Nor is any money allowed to be coined in Tibet, which in the eyes of the Imperial Government is merely a dependency of Sechuen, whence all orders are received in Lassa."

_É. Reclus, The Earth and its Inhabitants: Asia, volume 2, chapter 2._

ALSO IN: _H. Bower, Diary of a Journey across Tibet, chapter 16._

TIBISCUS, The.

The ancient name of the river Theiss.

TIBUR.

An important Latin city, more ancient than Rome, from which it was only 20 miles distant, on the Anio. Tibur, after many wars, was reduced by the Romans to subjection in the 4th century, B. C., and the delightful country in its neighborhood became a favorite place of residence for wealthy Romans in later times. The ruins of the villa of Hadrian have been identified in the vicinity, and many others have been named, but without historical authority. Hadrian's villa is said to have been like a town in its vast extent. The modern town of Tivoli occupies the site of Tibur.

_R. Burn, Rome and the Campagna, chapter 14._

TIBURTINE SIBYL.

See SIBYLS.

TICINUS, Battle on the.

See PUNIC WARS: THE SECOND.

TICKET-OF-LEAVE SYSTEM, The.

See LAW, CRIMINAL: A. D. 1825.

TICONDEROGA, Fort: A. D. 1731.- Built by the French.

See CANADA: A. D. 1700-1735.

TICONDEROGA, Fort: A. D. 1756. Reconstructed by the French.

See CANADA: A. D. 1756.

TICONDEROGA, Fort: A. D. 1758. The bloody repulse of Abercrombie.

See CANADA: A. D. 1758.

TICONDEROGA, Fort: A. D. 1759. Taken by General Amherst.

See CANADA: A. D. 1759 (JULY-AUGUST).

TICONDEROGA, Fort: A. D. 1775. Surprised and taken by the Green Mountain Boys.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1775 (MAY).

TICONDEROGA, Fort: A. D. 1777. Recapture by Burgoyne.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1777 (JULY-OCTOBER).

TIEN-TSIN, Treaty of (1858).

See CHINA: A. D. 1856-1860.

TIERRA FIRME.