Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1114

 10:70 TANITS. and marsh fever prevent all but a few fishermen from inhabiting it. The mounds which cover the site of Tanis are very liigh and of great extent, being upwards of a mile from north to south, and nearly three quarters of a mile from east to west. The arm in which the sacred enclosure of the temple of Ptliah stood is about 1500 feet in length by 1250 broad. The enclosure, which is of crude brick, is 1000 feet long and about 700 wide. A gateway of granite or fine gritstone, bearing the name of Rameses the Great, stands on the northern side of this enclosure. The numerous obelisks and the greater part of the sculptures of the temple were contributed by Rameses. His name is also inscribed on two granite columns outside the en- closure, and apparently unconnected with the temple. Though in a very ruinous condition, the fragments of walls, columns, and obelisks sufliciently attest the former splendour of this building. The archi- tecture is generally in the best style of Aegyptian art. and the beauty of the lotus-bud and palm ca- pitals of the columns is much celebrated by tra- vellers. Among the deities worshipped at Tanis were Pthah (Hephaestus), Maut, Ra, Horus, &c. The Pharaohs who raised these monuments were of various dynasties, ranging from the kings of the xviiith dynasty to the Aethiopian Tirhaka. The numerous remains of glass and pottery found here, and the huge mounds of brick, prove that the civil portions of Tanis were commensurate in extent and population with the religious. The modern village oi San consists of mere huts. Early in the present century an attempt was made to establish nitre- works there; but they have been long abandoned; and the only occupation of the few inhabitants of this once flourishing city is fishing. North of the town, and between it and the coast of the Medi- terranean, was the lake Tanis, the present Menza- leh. (Wilkinson, Mod. Egypt and Thebes, vol. i. pp. 407, 449, foil. ; Kemick, Ancient Egypt, vol. ii. p. 341.) [W.B.D.] TAX US (Tdvos, Artemidorus, ap. Steph. B. s. v.'), a town in Crete of which there is a coin with the epi- graph TANIHN. (Eckhel.vol. ii, p. 321). [E.B.J.] TANUS. [Argos, Vol. I. p. 201, a.] T.A.'OCE (TaoKTj, Arrian, Ind. c. 39 ; Strab. xv. p. 728), a town or fortress of the district of Tao- cene, in Persis. It was, according to Strabo, the seat of one of the three treasuries of the kings of Persia. It is not certain from Arrian's statement whether he means the town or the district, but probably the former. The town appears to have been placed near the river Grants. Ptolemy speaks of a promontory and a town of this name (vi. 4. §§2 and 7). It is probable that it is the same place as that called by Al-Edrisi, Toudj or Jb?// (ii. p. 391,&c.). Where Dionysius (1069), enu- merating the three palaces, speaks of the TatJKui, we ought most likely to read TaiKoi or Tokoi, with reference to the people of this district. The Granis is the river oi Abuskir. [Gr. is.] [V.] TA'OCHI (Ta'oxoi), a tribe in the interior of Pontus (Steph. B. s. v.), which is frequently noticed by Xenoplum in the Anabasis (iv. 4. § 18). They lived in mountain fortresses in which they kept all their possessions (iv. 7. § 1, com p. 6. § 5, v. 15. § 17). They occupied the country near the frontiers of Armenia. [L. S.] TAPANI'TAE (Tairav^rai, Ptol. iv. 5. § 21), a people in the interior of Marmarica. [T. H. D.] TAPE. [Tagak.] TAPOSIRIS. TA'PHIAE, and more anciently TELEBO'IDES, a number of small islands oft' the western coast of Greece, between Leucas and Acarnania (Plin. iv. 12. s. 19). also called the islands of the Taphii or Teleboae (Ta<fiia)j',T7}A.egot5v vri(Toi, Strab. x. p. 459), who are frequently mentioned in the Homeric poems as pirates. {Od. xv. 427, xvi. 426.) When Athena visited Telemachus at Ithaca, she assumed the form of Mentes. the leader of the Taphians. {Od. i. 105.) The Taphians or Teleboans are celebrated in the legend of Amphitryon, and are said to have been subdued by this hero. (Herod, v. 59 ; Apollod. ii. 4. §§6,7; Strab. I. c. ; Plant. A mph. i. 1 ; Diet, of Biog. art. Amphitrvon.) The principal island is called Taphos (Tai^os) by Homer {Od. i. 417), and by later writers Taphius,Taphiussa, or Taphias (Taij)ioi/s,Ta- (fnoCtro-a, Taipias, Strab. I.e.; Plin. I.e.; Steph. B. s. v. Ta<^os), now Meganisi. The next largest island of the Taphii was Carnus, now Kdlamo. (Scylax, p. 13; Stepli. B. s. v.; Leake, Northern Greeee, vol. iv. p. 16; Dodwell, vol. i. p. 60.) Stephanus B. men- tions a town in Ccphallenia, named Taphus, repre- sented by the modern Ta^o, where many ancient sepulchres are found. (Leake, Northern Greece, vol. iii. p. 67.) TAPHIASSUS. [Aetoi.ia, p. 63.] TAPHIS {Itin. Anton, p. 161 ; Taeis. Ptol. iv. 4. § 17 ; TaTTis, Olj-mpiod. ap. Phot. p. 62, ed. Bekker), a town situated on the western bank of the Nile, in the Eegio Dodecaschoenus, S. of Philae and the Lesser Cataract. The niins of an ancient city h.ave been discovered at Teffah in Lower Nubia, which are supposed to correspond with the ancient Taphis. It was in the neighbourhood of large stone-quarries. On the opposite side of the river was a suburb called Contra- Taphis. Both towns in the 5th centuiy A. D. were occupied by the Blemmves. [W. B. D.] TAPHOS. [Taphiae.] TAPHRAE or TAPHROS (Tdcppai, Steph. B. p. 642 ; cf. Jlela, ii. 1 ; Plin. iv. 12. s. 26 ; Tdcppos, Ptol. iii. 6. § 5), that part of the neck of the Cher- sonesus Taurica which was cut through by a dvke and fortified (Herod, iv. 3). Pliny and Ptolemy {II. cc.) mention a town called Taphrae ; and Strabo (vii. 308) also notices at this spot a people called Td<ppioi. (Cf. D'Anville, Mem de FAc. d. Inser. xxxvii. p. 581 ; Rennell, Geogr. of Herod, p. 96 ; Jlan- nert, iv. p. 291.) Pereeop, or Prezecop, the mo- dern name of the isthmus, also signifies in Russian a ditch or entrenchment. (Clarke, Trav. ii. p. 316.) [T. H.D.] TAPHROS. [Taurus.] TAPORI, a people of Lusitania. (Plin. iv. 22. s. 25.) [T. H.D.] TAPOSI'RIS (TairSaeipti, Strab. xvii. p. 799 ; TaTToaipis, Ptol. iv. 5. § 34; Dioscorides, Mater. Med. iii. 24 ; Ta(p6(Tipis, Steph. B. s. v. ; Tapostris, Tab. Pent. : the Bosiri of Leo Africanus), was a town in the Libyan Nome, west of the Delta, and about 25 miles distant from Alesandreia. There were probably several places of this name in Aegypt, since each Nome would be desirous to possess a '' tomb of Osiris." Abulfeda mentions a Basir near Seben- nytus, another in the Arsinoite Nome, the Fyoum ; a third at Gizeh, close to the Pyramids. The town, however, in the Libyan Nome appears to have been the most considerable of all, inasmuch as it was the place where the prefect of Alexandria held the pe- riodical census of the Libyan Nome. Its market, indeed, was so much frequented that the emperor Justinian (a. d. 527, foil.) constructed at Taposiris