Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1223

 TIBERIS. S3, liv. 1.) Great attention was bestowed by Au- gustus upon the subject, and he first instituted magistrates with the title of Curatores Tiberis, whose special duty was to endeavour to restrain tlie river within due bounds, to preserve the embank- ments, &c. (Suet. Oct. 37.) These ofiicers received increased powers under Tiberius, and continued down to the close of the Empire. We frequently meet with mention in inscriptions of the " Curatores alvei Tiberis et riparum," and the office seems to Lave been re<rarded as one of the most honourable in the state. (Dion Cass. Ivii. 14; Orell. Imcr. 1172, 2284, &c.; Gruter, Inscr. pp. 197, 198.) But it is evident that all their efforts were inefiectual. In the reign of Tiberius so serious was the mischief caused by an inundation in A. D. 15 that it was proposed in the senate to diminish the bulk of the waters by diverting some of the chief tributaries of the stream, such as the Nar, Veliinis and Clanis. (Tac. Ann. i. 76 ; Dion Cass. Ivii. 14.) This plan was, however, abandoned as impracticable ; and in a. d. 69 another inundation took place, which appears to have caused still more damage than any that had preceded it (Tac. Uist. i. 86). It is strange that in face of these facts Pliny should assert that the Tiber was so confined within artificial banks as to have very little power of out- break, and that its inundations were rather subjects of superstitious alarm than formidable in themselves. (Plin. iii. 5. s. 9.) During the later ages of the Em- jiiie indeed we hear but little of such outbreaks of the Tiber, but this is very probably owing only to the scanty nature of our records. One great inundation is, however, recorded as doing great mischief in the reign of Trajan, another in that of Macrinus, and a third in that of Valerian. (Dion Cass. Isxviii. 25; Vict. Cues. 34, Epit. 13.) One of the most de- structive of all is said to have been that of A. D. 590, which added to the various calamities that at that time almost overwhelmed the city. (^IJist. Miscdl. xviii. p. 583 ; Greg. Turon. x. 1.) At the present day the lower parts of Rome are still frequently flooded by the river, for though the soil of these parts of the cily has unquestionably been raised, in some places many feet, the bed of the Tiber has un- doubtedly been also elevated, though probably in a less degree. The whole subject of the inundations and navigation of the Tiber, and the measures taken in ancient times in connection with them, is fully illustrated by Preller in an article entitled Rom unci der Tiber in the Bcvichte der Sdchsischen Geselhchaft for 1848 and 1849. The Tiber appears to have been in ancient times occasionally frozen, at least partially; a circumstance to which the Latin poets repeatedly allude. But we must not construe their rhetorical expressions too strictly; and it is clear from the terms in which Livy notices its being frozen over in the extraor- dinary winter of b. c. 398, that such an occurrence was of extreme rarity. ('' Insignis annus hieme gelida ac nivosa fuit, adeo ut viae clausae, Tiberis innavi- gabilis i'uerit, I:iv. v. 13.) St. Augustin also alludes to such a winter (apparently the same noticed by Livy), " ut Tiberis quoque glacie duraretur," as a thing unheard of in his times. (Augustin, Civ. Dei, iii. 17.) It was a tradition generally received among the Romans that the Tiber had been originally called Albula; and that it changed its name in consequence of Tiberinus, one of the fabulous kings of Alba, having been drowned in its waters. (Liv. i. 3 ; Dionys. TIBULA. 1 199 i. 71; Vict. Ori<j. G. Rom. 18.) Virgil, however, who calls the king Thybris, assigns him to an earlier period, prior to the landing of Aeneas {Acii. viii. 330). Hence the river is not unfrcquently called by the Roman poets Albula. (Sil. Ital. vi. 391, viii. 455, &c.) It had naturally its tutelary divinity or river-god, who, as we learn from Cicero, was rcsju- larly invoked in their prayers by the augui-s under the name of Tiberinus (Cic. de N. D. iii. 20). He is frequently introduced by the Roman poets as "pater Tiberinus" (Enn. Ann. i. p. 43; Virg. Aen. viii. 31, 72; &c) [E. H.B.] TIBIGENSE OPPIDUM, a town in Africa Propria, apparently the Thigiba (0i7i§a) of Pto- lemy (iv. 3. § 29 ; Plin. v. 4. s. 4). [T. H. D.] TIBILIS, a town in the interior of Nuniidia, 54 miles from Cirta having hot mineral springs (Aquae Tibilitanae) (August. Ep. 128 : Itiii. Ant. p. 42), commonly identified with Ilaininam Meslcu- ?«'» in the mountains near the vex Seibonse ; but, according to D'Avezac and the map of the province of Constantine (Par. 1837), it is Hammam-el- Berda, somewhat more to the N. [T. H. D.] TIBISCUJI (TiSiaKov, Ptol. iii. 8. § 10), a town of Dacia, on the river Tibiscus. By the Geogr. Rav. it is called Tibis (iv. 14), and in the Tab. Petit. Tiviscum. Its ruins exist at Kavaran. at the junction of the Temesz (Tibiscus) and Bislra (cf. Ukcrt, iii. 2. p. 616). [T. H. D.] TIBISCUS (Ti'giff/fos, Ptol. iii. 8. § 1 ), a tributary river of the Danube in Dacia. We also find it called Tibissus {Inscr. Grut. p. 448. 3) and Tibisia (Gcngr Rav. iv. 14). Several authors identify it with the Tisianus or Tysia (the modern Theiss), with which, indeed, Ptolemy seems to have confounded it, as he does not mention the latter (Mannert, iv. p. 203; Sickler, i. p. 19G; cf. Ukert, iii. 2. p. 603). But Forbiger, after Reichard, identifies it with the Te- mesz; his grounds for that opinion being that Jor- nandes {Get. c. 34) and the Geographer of Ravenna (l. c.) mention the Tysia and Tibisia as two distinct rivers, and that the site of the ancient town of Ti- biscum appears to point to the Donesz {Ilandb. d. alt. Geogr. iii. p. 1103, note). It is probaiiie that the Pathissus of Pliny (iv. 12. s. 25) and Parihiscus of Ammianus JIarcellinus (xvii. 13. § 4) are the same river, though some identify them with the Tisianus. [T. H. D.] TIBISIS (Ti'gio-is), a large river of Scytliia, which Herodotus describes as rising in Mt. Ilaemus. and flowing into the Maris (iv. 49). It is identified by some with the Kara Low. TIBULA {Ti§ova, Ptol.), a town of Sardinia, near the N. extremity of the island, which appears to have been the cu»toinary landing-place for travel- lers coming from Corsica; for which rciuson the Itineraries give no less than four lines of route, taking their departure from Tibula as a startiiig-i)oiiit. {Hill. Ant. j)p. 78 — 83.) It is very unforlunato therefore that its position is a matter of great un- certainty. That assigned to it by Ptolemy would jilace it on tiie site of Ca.itel Sardo on the N. ruast of the island, and oidy about 18 mili's from I'ortu Torres, but this is wholly incompatible with tho statements of the Itineraries, and must certainly be erroneous. Indeed Ptolemy himself places tho 'I'ibulates, or Tibidatii (TiSovKarioi), who mu>t have been closely connected with the town of that name, in the extreme N. of tho island (Ptol. iii. 3. § G), and all the data derived from the Itineraries concur in the same result. The most probable posi-