Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1129

TARRACONENSIS PROVIXCIA. larged by the brothers Publius and Cneius Scipio, who converted it into a fortress and arsenal against the Carthajjinians. Subsequently it became the capital of the province named after it, a Roman colony, and "conventus juridicus." (Plin. /. c. ; Tac. Ann. i. 78; Solin. 23, 26; Polyb. x. 34; Liv. sxi. 61; Steph. B. p. 637 ) Augustus wintered at Tarraco after his Cantabrian campaign, and bestowed many marks of honour on the city, among which were its honorary titles of " Colonia Victrix Togata " and " Colonia Julia Victrix Tarraconensis." (Grut. Imci: j>. 382 Orelli, no. 3127; coins in Eckhel, i. p. 27 ; Florez, Med. ii. p. 579 ; Mionnet, i. p. 51, Siippl. i. p. 104; Sestini, p. 202.) According to Mela (I. c.) it was the richest town on that coast, and Strabo {I. c.) represents its population as equal to that of Carthago Nova. Its fertile plain and sunny shores are celebrated by Martial and other poets; and its neighbourhood is described as pro- ducing good wine and flax. (Mart. x. 104, xiii. 118; Sil. Ital. iii. 369, xv. 177; Plin. xiv. 6. s. 8, xix. 1. s. 2.) There are still many important ancient remains at Tarragona, the present name of the city. Part of the bases of large Cyclopean walls near the Quartet de Pilatos are thought to be anterior to. the Romans. The building just men- tioned, now a prison, is said to have been the palace of Augustus. But Tarraco, like most other ancient towns which have continued to be inhabited, has been pulled to pieces by its own citizens for the purpose of obtaining building materials The am- phitheatre near the sea-shore has been used as a quarry, and but few vestiges of it now remain. A circus, 1500 feet long, is now built over it, though portions of it are still to be traced. Throughout the town Latin, and even apparently Phoenician, in- scriptions on the stones of the houses proclaim the desecration that has been perpetrated. Two ancient monuments, at some little distance from the town, have, however, fared rather better. The first of these is a magnificent aqueduct, which spans a valley about a mile from the gates. It is 700 feet in length, and the loftiest arches, of which there are two tiers, are 96 feet high. The monument on the NW. of the city, and also about a mile distant, is a Roman sipulchre, vulgarly called the " Tower of the Sci- ]'ins;" but there is no authority for assuming that llicy were buried here. (Cf. Ford, Handbook, p. 219, seq.; Florez, Esp. Sagr. xsis. p. 68, seq. ; iMinano, Diccion. viii. p, 398.) [T. H. D.] lARRACONENSIS PROVINCIA (called by till' Greeks TapfiaKwfT^ala, Ptol. ii. 6, viii. 4. § 5, I'vi .; and 'l§rjpia tj ntpl TappaKuva, Dion Cass. liii. ■". ), at first constituted, as already remarked [Vol. 1. p. 1081], the province of Hispaiiia Citerior. It I litained its new appellation in the time of Augustus in. in its chief city Tarraco, where the Romans had c>tal>lished themselves, and erected the tribunal of a ])iaetor. The Tarraconensis was larger than the oilier two provinces put together. Its boundaries 'virc, on the E. the Mare Internum; on the N. the I'Mx-nees, which separated it from Gallia, and fur- i westward the jlare Cantabricum; on the W., 1 ir southward as the Durius, the Atlantic ocean, i.il below that point the province of Lusitania; and nil the S. the province of Lusitania and tlie province (-1 Baetica, the boundaries of which have been already laid down. (Mela, ii. 6 ; comp. Strab. iii. p. 1 66 ; Plin. iv. 21. s. 35; Marcian, p. 34.) Thus it embraced ilie modern provinces of Mwciu, Valencia, Cata- Intia, Arragon, Navarre, Biscay, Asturias, Gulli- VoL. II. TARSUS. 1105 cia, the N. part of Portugal as far down as the Douro, the N. part of Leon, nearly all the Castiles, and part oi Andalusia. The nature of its climate and jiroductions may be gatliered from what has been already said [Hispania, Vol. I. p. 1086.] A sum- mary of the diiferent tribes, according to the various authorities that have treated upon the sul)ject, has also been given in the same article [p. 1083], as well as the particulars respecting its government and athninistration [p. 1081.] [T. H. I).] TARRAGA (Jappa-ya, Ptol. ii. 6. § 67), called by the Geogr. Rav. (iv. 43) Teruacha, a town of the Vascones in Hispania Tarraconensis (Plin. iii. 3. s. 4). Now Larraga. (Cf. Cellarius, Orh. Ant. i. p. 91.) [T. H. D.] TARKHA (Ta/5pa, Pausan. ix. 16. § 13; Theo- phrast. H.P. ii. 2; Steph. B. s.v. Orac. ap. Evseh. P. E. p. 133, ed. Stephan.; Td^fios, Stadiasm. §§ 329, 330), a town on the SW. coast of Crete between Phoenice and Poecilassus, one of the earliest sites of the Apollo-worship, and the native country of the writer Lucillus. For Tarba (TapSa, Ptol. iii. 17. § 3) Meursius proposes to read Tarrha There can be little or no doubt that its position should be fixed on the SW. coast of the island, at the very entrance of the glen of Hughia Rumeli, where the bold hanging mountains hem in the rocky bed of the river. (Pashley, Travels, vol. ii. p. 270). The Florentine traveller Buondelmonti, who visited Crete a. d. 1415, describes considerable remains of a temple and other buildings as existing on the site of the ancient city (op. Cornelius, Creta Sacra, vol. i. p. 85). [E. B. J.] TARSATICA (TapauTUca, Ptol. ii. 17. § 2), called in the Itin. Ant. p. 273, Tliarsaticum, a place in Illyricum, on the road from Aquileia to Siscia through Liburnia, now Tersat, to the E. of Fiume. (Cf. Pliny, iii. 21. s. 25 ; Tab. Pent.) [T. H. D.] TARSHISH. [Tartessus.] TA'RSIA iyapait], Arrian, Ind. c. 37), a pro- montory on the coast of Cannania, visited by the fleet of Nearchus. The conjecture of Vincent ( Voy- age of Nearchus, i. p. 362) that it is represented by the present Rds-al-Djerd appears well founded. It is perhaps the same as the Themisteas Promon- torium of Pliny (vi. 25) as suggested by Miiller (Gco(7. fi-rnec. i. p.360.) [V.] TATiSlUJl {ydpaiov, Ptol. ii. 16. § 8), a place in Pannonia Inferior, now Tersacz. [T. H. D.] TA'RSIUS (Tctpo-ios), a river of Mysia in the neighbourhood of the town of Zeleia, which had its source in Mount Teinnus, and flowed in a north- eastern direction through the lake of Miletopolis, and, issuing from it, continued its north-eastern counse till it joined the JIacestus. (.Strab. xiii. p. p. 587.) Strabo indeed states that the river flowed in numerous windings not far from Zeleia ; but he can scarcely mean any other river than the one now bearing the name Balike.tri, and which the Turks still call Tarza. Hamilton {Researches, vol. ii. p. 106) identifies it with tlie Kara Su or Kaj-a JJere Su, which flows into Luke Ma7iiyas. [L. S.] TARSU'RAS (Tapaovpas, Arrian, Per. P. Lux. p. 10), a river of Colchis falling into the sea be- tween theSingames and the Hippus. (Cf. Plin. vi. 4. s. 4.) It is probably the same river called Tas- siaros in the Tab. Pent. [T. 11. I).] TARSUS {Tapads : Eth. Tu.pcrrii'6s or Tapaivi). sometimes also called Tarsi {Tapiroi), Tersns Tfp- (r6s), Tharsus (Qapa6i), or Tapahs nphs tw KiSvcp, to distinguish it from other places of tlic same iianie 4 B