Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/1136

Rh 1124 TIBERIUS. stasia, to wliom he had been for some time secretly married. Sophia, though treated with respect by the new emperor, and enjoying an ample allowance, could not forget her disappointment, and she is said to have induced Justinian to conspire with her to overthrow the man whom she had loved. The plot was discovered : Sophia was deprived of all power of doing further mischief, and Justinian, who was pardoned, became a faithful friend of Tiberius. In A. D. 579 Chosroes, the Persian, was suc- ceeded by Hormisdas, and the war began again. Mauricius defeated the Persians, overran a large part of Persia, and in a bloody contest on the Eu- phrates, A. D. 580, gave the forces of Hormisdas a most signal defeat ; and again in the following year. In Africa, which had long been disturbed by the natives, Gennadius, the exarch of Ravenna, defeated (a. d. 580) Gasmul, king of the Mauritani. Mauricius enjoyed a triumph at Constantinople for his Persian victories, a. d. 581, and in August of that year, Tiberius, whose health was rapidly fail- ing, raised him to the dignity of Caesar, having no sons of his own. He also gave him his daughter Constantina in marriage. Tiberius died on the 14th of August, A. D. 582, and was succeeded by Mauricius. Tiberius was universally regretted. By an eco- nomical administration he diminished the taxation of his subjects, and always had his treasury full. There were at least six constitutions of the emperor Tiberius ; three of which (Nos. 161, 163, 164) form part of the collection of 168 Novellae, one is found by itself in the Venice manuscript, the fifth is lost, and the sixth only exists in Latin. The constitution (No. 163, Ilepi Kov(pi(rixwp Stj/^o- aiwu, " On the Diminution of Taxes," expresses a humane desire to relieve the people from their burdens, combined with a prudent regard to supply the necessary demands of the state. (Gibbon, Decline and Fall, ^c, ch. 45, who also gives the references to the authorities for the reign of Tiberius ; Mortreuil, Hist, du Droit Bt/zaniin, vol. i.p. 81.) [G. L.] TIBE'RIUS ABSI'MARUS, who held the command of the Cibyratae in the fleet of Leontius II., was proclaimed emperor by the mutinous soldiers and sailors, and, returning to Constanti- nople, he usurped the throne and put Leontius in prison, A. D. 698. [Leontius II.] The usurper added to his name Absimarus, the respected name of Tiberius. His brother Keraclius, whom he ap- pointed to conduct the war against the Arabs, in- vaded Syria (a. d. 699 — 700), and treated the inhabitants with the most inhuman cruelty. The events of this usurper's reign are unimportant. The strangeness of his rise was only equalled by the suddenness of his fall, and by the restoration to the imperial throne of Justinian II. (a. d. 704), who had been expelled by Leontius [Justini- ANus II.], as Leontius was expelled by Tibe- rius. [G. L.] TIBE'RIUS ALEXANDER. [Alexander.] TIBE'RIUS, literarj'. 1. A philosopher and sophist, of unknown time, the author of numerous works on grammar and rhetoric, the titles of which are given by Suidas, and of commentaries on He- rodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, and Demosthenes. One of his works, on the figures in the orations of Demosthenes (Trepi ruv irapk Arffiocrdepei crxr/^ta- Tft-v), is still extant, and has been published in the lihetores Graod of Thomas Gale, Oxon, 1676, TIBULLUS. 8vo., Lips. 1773, 8vb. ; and separately by BoiV sonade, Lond. Valpy, 1815, 8vo. (Fabric. BM. Graec. vol. vi. p. 1 18 ; Classical Journal, No. 23, pp. 198—204.) 2. Illustrius, the author of two epigrams in the Greek Anthology. Nothing more is known of him. (Brunck, Anal. vol. iii. p. 7 ; Jacobs, Anth. Grae.c. vol. iii. p. 228, vol. xiii. p. 962.) [P. S.] TIBE'RIUS, a veterinary surgeon, who may perhaps have lived in the fourth or fifth century after Christ. He wrote some works, of which only fragments remain, which are to be found in the collection of writers on veterinary surgery, first published in Latin by J. Ruellius, Paris. 1530. fol., and in Greek by S. Grynaeus, Basil. 1537. 4to. [W. A. G.] TIBOETES (TtgoiTTjs), an uncle of Prusias I., king of Bithynia, was living in Macedonia in the early part of the reign of Prusias, and was sent for by the Byzantines in B. c. 220, as they wished to set him up as a competitor for the throne of Bithy- nia ; but he died on his journey from Macedonia. (Polvb.iv. 50— 52.) TI'BULUS FLACCUS. [Flaccus.] TIBULLUS, A'LBIUS (his praenoraen is unknown), was of equestrian family. The date of his birth is uncertain : it is assigned by Voss, Passow, and Dissen to b. c. 59, by Lachman and Paldamus to b. c. 54 ; but he died young (accord- ing to the old life by Hieronymus Alexandrinus, in flore juventutis) soon after Virgil (Domitius Marsus in Epigraramate) " Te quoque Virgilii comitem non aequa, Tibulle, Mors juvenem campos misit ad Elysios." But as Virgil died B. c. 19, if TibuUus died the year after, B. c. 1 8, he would even then have been 36. The later date therefore is more probable. Of the youth and education of Tibullus, absolutely nothing is known. His late editor and biographer, Dissen,. has endeavoured to make out from his writings, that according to the law, which com- pelled the son of an eques to perform a certain period of military service (formerly ten years), Ti- bullus was forced, strongly against his will, to become a soldier. This notion is founded on the tenth elegy of the first book, in which the poet expresses a most un-Roman aversion to war. He is dragged to war, " Some enemy is already girt with the arms with which he is to be mortally wounded (1. 13). Let others have the fame of valour ; he would be content to hear old soldiers recite their campaigns around his hospitable board, and draw their battles on the table with their wine." (1. 29, 32.) But this Elegy is too perfectly finished for a boyish poem ; by no means marks its date in any period of the poet's life ; and intimates rather that he was, at the time when it was writ- ten, quietly settled on his own patrimonial estate. That estate, belonging to the equestrian ances- tors of Tibullus, was at Pedum, between Tibur and Praeneste. This property, like that of the other great poets of the day, Virgil and Horace, had been either entirely or partially confiscated during the civil wars ; yet Tibullus retained or recovered part of it, and spent there the better portion of his short, but peaceful and happy life. He describes most gracefully, in his first elegy, his reduced for- tunes. " His household gods had once been the guardians of a flourishing, they were now of a poor family (1. 19, 20). A single lamb was now