Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 10.djvu/23

LEFT TBITON 1 height of 7,640 feet. The island was taken possession of by Great Britain in 1817. TRITON, in classical mythology, a powerful sea deity, son of Poseidon (Neptune) by Amphitrite, or, according to some, by Sileno or Salacia. He dwelt with his father in a golden palace on the bottom of the sea. He could calm the ocean, and abate storms. He was generally represented as blowing a shell, and with a body above the waist like that of a man, and below like a dolphin. Many of the sea deities were called Tri- tons by the poets. TEITOW, in zoology: (1) A genus of Salamandrinx, with 16 species, widely distributed in temperate and sub-tropi- cal regions. Body covered with warty tubercles, four toes on anterior, and five on posterior limbs, all without nails; no parotids; glandular pores above and behind the eyes, and a series of similar pores arranged longitudinally on each side of the body; male with well-marked discontinuous crest on back and tail; tongue globular, partially free at the sides, free behind where it is pointed. In North America, Diemictylus virides- cens is one of the most common species. (2) A genus of Muricidse (Wood- ward), according to some other authori- ties, of Cassididse, with 100 recent spe- cies, from the West Indies, Mediter- ranean, Africa, India, China, the Pacific, and western Australia, ranging from low water to 10 or 20 fathoms, and one minute species has been dredged at 50 fathoms. The Great Triton {T. tritonis) is the conch blown as a trumpet by the Australian and Polynesian natives. Fos- sil species 45, from the Eocene of Great Britain, France, and Chile. TRITONE, the augmented fourth in music; that is, a succession of three whole tones. It is not approved for a progression in harmony and is used sparingly, and earlier never. TRITONIA, in botany, a genus of Iridaceae; about 25 species, all from southern Africa; are cultivated in green- houses; they have yellow, orange, pink, red, blue, or greenish flowers, and are handsome when in bloom. In zoology, the type genus of Tritoniadm, with 13 species, from Norway and Great Brit- ain; found under stones at low water to 25 fathoms. Animal elongated; ten- tacles with branched filaments; veil tu- berculated or digitated; gills in a single series; mouth with horny jaws, stomach simple. TRIUMPH, in Roman antiquities, a grand procession, in which a victorious TROCHA general entered the city by the Porta Triumphalis, in a chariot drawn by four horses, wearing a dress of extraordinary splendor, namely, an embroidered robe, an under garment flowered with palm leaves, and a wreath of laurel round his brows. He was preceded by the prison- ers taken in the war, the spoils of the cities captured, and pictures of the re- gions subdued. He was followed by his troops; and, after passing along the Via Sacra and through the Forum, as- cended to the capitol, where he offered a bull in sacrifice to Jove. A naval triumph differed from a mili- tary one only in being on a smaller scale, and in being characterized by the ex- hibition of nautical trophies, such as beaks of ships. An ovation was an honor inferior to a triumph, the chief difference being that in the former the victorious general entered the city on foot, and in later times on horseback. "The Senate claimed the exclusive pre- rogative of granting or refusing a triumph. TRIUMVIR, in Roman government, one of the three men united in office. The triumvirs were either ordinary magistrates (as the triumviri capitales, who were police commissioners, having charge of the jails, and acting as magis- trates, the triumviri monetales, who were commissioners of the mint, and had the charge of coining money), or they were extraordinary commissioners ap- pointed to jointly execute any office. The term is specifically applied to the mem- bers of the two triumvirates. TRIUMVIRATE, a coalition of three men in office or authority; specifically applied to two great coalitions of the three most powerful individuals in the Roman empire for the time being. The first of these was effected in the year 60 B. c, between Julius Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus, who pledged themselves to sup- port each other with all their influence. This coalition was broken by the fall of Crassus at Carrhae in Mesopotamia; soon after which the civil war broke out, which ended with the death of Pompey, and establishment of Julius Caesar as perpetual dictator. After his murder, 44 B. C, the civil war again broke out; and after the battle of Mutina, 43 B. c, Antony, Octavius, and Lepidus coalesced, thus forming the second triumvirate. They divided the provinces of the em- pire; Octavius taking the West, Lepidus Italy, and Antony the East. TROCHA, a Spanish word denoting a military highroad. The trocha played an important part as a barrier in the Cuban insurrection in 1895-1898. It consisted of a clear space 150 to 200 yards wide.