Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1130

 1106 TARSUS. was the chief city of Cilicia, and one of the most important places in all Asia Minor. It was situated in a most fertile and productive plain, on both sides of the river Cydnus, which, at a distance of 70 stadia from the city, flowed into a lagoon called Rliegma or Eliegmi. This lagoon formed the port of Tarsus, and was connected with the sea. The situation of the city was most favourable, for the river was navigable up to Tarsus, and several of the most important roads of Cihcia met there. Its foundation is ascribed to Sardanapalus, the Assyrian king, and the very name of the city seems to indicate its Semitic origin. But the Greeks claimed the honour of having colonised the place at a very early period ; and, among the many stories related by them about the colonisation of Tarsus, the one adopted by Strabo (xiv. p. 673; conip. Steph. B. s. v.) ascribes the foundation to Argives who with Triptolemus arrived there in search of lo. The first really historical mention of Tarsus occurs in the Anabasis of Xe- nophon, who describes it as a great and wealthy city, situated in an extensive and fertile plain at the foot of the passes of Mount Taurus leading into Cappadocia and Lycaonia. (^Anab. i. 2. § 2.3, &c.) The city then contained the palace of Syennesis, king of Cilicia, but virtually a satrap of Persia, and an equivocal ally of Cyrus when he marched against his brother Artaxerxes. When Cyrus arrived at Tarsus, the city vs-as for a time given up to plunder, the troops of Cyrus being exasperated at the loss sustained by a detachment of Cilicians in crossing the mountains. Cyrus then concluded a treaty with Syennesis, and remained at Tarsus for 20 days. In the time of Alexander we no longer hear of kings ; but a Persian satrap resided at Tarsus, who fled before the young conqueror and left the city, which surrendered to the Macedonians without resistance. Alexander himself was detained there in consequence of a dangerous fever brought on by bathing in the Cydnus. (Arrian, Anab. ii. 4; Curt. iii. 5.) After the time of Alexander, Tarsus with the rest of Cilicia belonged to the empire of the Seleucidae, except during the short period when it was connected with Egypt under the second and third Ptolemy. Pompey delivered Tarsus and Cilicia from the dominion of the eastern despots, by making the country a Roman province. Notwithstanding this, Tarsus in the war between Caesar and Pompey sided with the former, who on this account honoured it with a per- sonal visit, in consequence of which the Tarsians changed the name of their city into Juliopolis. (Caes. B. Alex. 66; Dion Cass, xlvii. 24; Flor. iv. 2.) Cassius afterwards punished the city for this attach- ment to Caesar by ordering it to be plundered, but M. Antony rewarded it with municipal freedom and exemption from taxes. It is well known how Antony received Cleopatra at Tarsus when that queen sailed up the Cydnus in a magnificent vessel in the disguise of Aphrodite. Augustus subsequently increased the favours previously bestowed upon Tarsus, which on coins is called a " libera civitas." During the first centuries of the empire Tarsus was a place of great importance to the Romans in their campaigns against the Parthians and Perbians. The emperor Tacitus, his brother Florian, and Maximinus and Julian died at Tarsus, and Julian was buried in one of its sub- urbs. It continued to be an opulent town until it fell into the hands of the Saracens. It was, how- ever, taken from them in the second half of the 10th century by the emperor Nicephorus, but was soon after again restored to them, and has remained in TARTESSUS their hands ever since. The town still exists under J the name of Tersoos, and though greatly reduced, I it is still the chief town of that part of Karmnania. Few important remains of antiquity are now to be seen there, but the country around it is as delightful and as productive as ever. I Tarsus was not only a great commercial city, but I at the same time a gre.at seat of learning and philosophy, and Strabo (xiv. p. 673, &c.) gives a long list of eminent men in philosophy and litera- ■ ture who added to its lustre ; but none of them is I more illustrious than the Apostle Paul, who belonged I to one of the many Jewish families settled at Tarsus. (^Acts, s. 30, xi. 30, xv. 22, 41, xxi. 39; comp. Ptol. V. 8. § 7; Diod. xiv. 20; Hierocl. p. 704; Stadiasm. Mar. BI. § 156; Leake, Asia Minor, p. 214; Russegger, Reisen in Asien, i. 1. p. 395, foil., 2. p. 639, foil.) Another town of the name of Tarsus is said to have existed in Bithynia (Steph. B. s. v.), but nothing is known about it. [L. S.] COIN OF TARSUS. TA'RTARUS (JTartnrv), a river of Venetia, near the borders of Gallia Transpadana. It is inter- mediate between the Athesis (^Adige) and the Padus (Po); and its waters are now led aside by artificial canals partly into the one river and partly into the other, so that it may be called inditFerently a tri- butary of either. In ancient times it seems to have had a recognised mouth of its own, though this was even then wholly artificial, so that Pliny calls it the " fossiones Philistinae, quod alii Tartarum vocant." (Plin. iii. 16. s. 20.) In the upper part of its course it formed, as it still does, extensive marshes, of which Caecina, the general of Vitellius, skilfully availed himself to cover his position near Hostilia. (Tac. Hist. iii. 9.) The river is here still called the Tartaro : lower down it assumes the name of Canal Bianco, and after passing the town of Adria, and sending off part of its wp.ters right and left into the Po and Adige, discharges the rest by the channel now known as the Po di Levante. The river Atrianus (^hrptavhs noTa/xus), mentioned by Ptolemy (iii. 16. § 20), could be no other than the mouth of the Tartarus, so called from its flowing by the city of Adria ; but the channels of these waters have in all ages been changing. [E. H. B.] TARTESSUS (TapT-ncrads, Herod, i. 163; Tap- r7]cTff6s and TapTeads, Diodor. Siculus, Frag. lib. XXV.), a district in the south of Spain, lying to the ] west of the Columns of Hercules. It is now the ' prevailing opinion among biblical critics that the Tarshish of Scripture indicates certain localities in the south of Spain, and that its name is equi- valent to the Tartessus of the Greek and Roman writers. The connection in which the name of Tar- shish occurs in the Old Testament with those of other places, points to the most western limits of the world, as known to the Hebrews (Genes, x. 4; 1 Chron. i. 7; Psalms, Isxii. 10; Isaiah, Ixyi. 19);