Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/610

 THABRACA

552

THACIA

Mount Thabor is the object of poetical comparisons eral attacks by the Saracens, but after the battle of

on the part of the Psalmist (Ps. boorviii, 13), the Prophet Jeremias (xlvi, 18), and the Prophet Osee (v, 1). The beautiful mountain also played an im- portant part in history. There the Prophetess Debbora secretly assembled 10,000 Israelites under the command of Barac, who subsequently swept down upon the army of Sisara and put it to flight at the torrent of Cison (Judges, iv, v). Later the Madian- ites and Amalecites slew there the brothers of Gedeon and other Israehtes who had sought refuge there from the enemy (Judges, vi, 2-viii, 18-19). At the division of the Promised Land, Thabor formed the boundary between Issachar and Zabulon (Jos., xix, 22). Within the tribe of Zabulon, but near Daberetli, a city of Issachar, the Book of Josue (xix, 12) mentions the city of Ceseleththabor, in Hebrew Chisloth-Thabor, which means "slope or side of Thabor". I Par. (vi, 77) also speaks of a city of Zabulon called simply Thabor and assigned to the Levites descended from Merari. This is an abbreviated form of the name of the same city, and is probably the same as that which as Dabour figures among the Galilean cities con- quered by Ramp.'<i s II, according to i ' "Papvrus Anastu- 1 (I, .xxii, 2). Pohliii (Hist., V, Ixx, 6) re- lates that in 218 b.( . Antiochus ths Grrat captured by strata- gem the city of Atabyrion in Galilee. History makes no further mention of this city, not even in connexion with the bloody battles fought at the foot of Mount Thabor in 53 B. c. between Alexander, the son of Aristobulus, and Gabinius, the lieutenant of Pompey ("Ant. Jud.", XIV, vi, 3; "Bell. Jud.", I, viii, 7). Eusebius alone again refers to it in the words "Dabira ... a viOage of the Jews on Mount Thabor" ("Onom.", ed. Klostermann, 78). Dabe- reth (Jos., xix, 12; xxi, 28) is indisputably the modern village of Dab(iriy6h, at the foot of Mount Thabor towards the west.

A ten minutes' ascent northward from Nazareth brings one to the ruins of a Hebrew place called by the natives Khirbet Daboura (ruins of Daboura) and also Abu AmoCld (father of columns). This is the site of the Biblical Ciseleth Thabor, of the Daboura of the Egyptians, and the Atabyrion of the Greeks. It com- manded the road of caravans and armies. During the revolt of the Jews against the Romans, Josephus surrounded "the plateau of Thabor" with a wall of circumvallation twenty-six stadia or about two miles in circumference, which task was accomphshed in forty days. This formed a kind of ontn'iiohed camp where the rebels, pursuefl from all directions, sought refuge in order to organize their hist stand. Ves- pasian's lieutenant, Placidus, marc^lied against them with a force of 000 horsemen, enticed tlicm into the plain by stratagem, and completely defc-ated them ("Vita", 37; "Bell. Jud.", II, iv, xx, 6; i, S). In the fourth century of our era Mount Tlialior.which was ac- knowledged as the scene of Christ's Transllguratiiui, became a place of pilgriin.-igc and was siirinounled by a basili(^a and several ehure.lies and diapcls. In 1101 the Benedictine monks rebuilt the sacred edifices and erected a fortified abbey, where they withstood sev-

From

Hattin (1187) they had to abandon the mountain. Melek el Adel built there (1210-12) a large and soUd fortress which the Crusaders attacked in vain in 1217; in the following year Melek el Adel caused it to be dis- mantled. The plateau of Mount Thabor is now occu- pied by Franciscans and Schismatic Greek monks.

Robinson, Bibliail Researches in Palestine, III (Boston, 1S41); Survei/ of W. Pal, Memoirs, I (London, ISSl): GuEKiN, Descrip- tion de la Palestine: GaliUe (Paria, 1880); Meistermann, Le jnord Thabor (Paris, 1900).

Barnabas Meistermann.

Thabraca, a titular see of Numidia near the sea, be- tween the Armua and theTusca. Thabraca was the last Numidian city in the direction of theZcugitana and was a Roman colony. It was connected by a road with Simitthu. to which it served as a port for the exporta- tion of its famous marbles. At Thabraca Gildo, the brother of Firmus, committed suicide. Under Genseric it had a monastery for men and one for women. It is now Tabarka, annexed to the civil district of Souk el-Arba, Tunis, and a rather impor- tant fishing centre. Confronting it, at a distance of about 365 yards, is the small Island of Tabarca, where the Genoese Lomellini, who had jjurchased the grant of the coral fishing from the Turks, main- tained a garrison from 1540 to 1742. Here may still be seen the niins of a stronghold, a church, and some Genoese buildings. At Tabarka the ruins consist of a pit used as a church and some fragments of walls which belonged to Chris- tian buildings. There are also two Turkish fortresses, one of which has been repaired. The city contains several Christian cemeteries, many of the tombs having covers adorned with curious mosaics. An inscription (C. I. L.,VIII, 173-82) mentions the cult of the martjT Anastasia and her companions. The bishops of Tha- braca, who met with those of the proconsulate, were: Victoricus, at the Council of Carthage (2.56); Rustici- anus, at the Conference of Carthage in 411, where his competitor was the Donatist Cliarentius, and signer in 416 of the letter from the council of Proconsular Africa to Pope Innocent; Clarissimus, who in 646 signed the letter from the .same Council to Patriarch Paul of Constantinople against the Monothelites.

Smith. Diet. Greek and Roman Geog., s. v.; Tori.OTTE. G^o- graphie de VAfrique chrHienne: Numidic (Paris, 1S94), 277-SO; DiEHL, UAJrique byzantine (Paris, 1896), passim.

S. P*£THIDi;8.

Thacia Montana, a titular see in Africa Procon-

suhiris, suffragan of Carthage. An in.scription dis- covered in the ruins known as Henshir Bedji, among them a church, near Bordj Me.s.saoudi, seems to indi- cate that this was Ihe site of the municipium of Tha- cia, to which Wady Tasaa, or Tessa, also owes its name. It was located on (lie highway between Carthage and Theveste, midway between iSlusti (Mest) and Dru- siliaiia (Khaiiguet Kdim), Tunisia. It is mentioned by Ptolemy (IV, 3), the "Tabula Pent inger.", and the "Geogr. Kaveiinat." (151); it was fortified during the Hyzanline period, and at the end of 545 the Byzan- tine general, .lolin. was defe.'ited and slain there. On the other hand, at the present luifida, 6)4 miles