Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1232

 1208 TIGAVA CASTKA. army had occupied as a stronghold iu u. c. 295- but iiotvrithstandiug the strength of the position, they were attacked and defeated there by tlie Konrian con- sul L. Volumnius Flamma (Liv. x. 30, 31). Upon two other occasions during the Samnite wars Livy speaks of Tifernus or Tifernum in a manner that would leave it uncertain whether this mountain fast- ness is meant, or a town of the same name (Liv. ix. 44, X. 14) ; but as we have no other mention of a town of Tifernum in Samnium, it is perhaps more probable that in all these cases the mountain of that name is meant. The group thus named is a part of that known collectively as the Monte Matese, — one of the most conspicuous mountain masses in Sam- nium. [Samnium.] The river Tifernus has a course of above 60 miles from its source to the Adriatic, in a general direction from SW. to NE. In the lower part of its course, after leaving the confines of Sam- nium, it constituted in ancient times the boundary between Apulia and the Frentani. (Mel. ii. 4. § 6; Plin. iii. 11. s. 16, 12. s. 17; Ptol. iii. 1. § 18, vrhere the MSS. have ^iTepvos ; but this is pro- bably a mistake for Ti'pepi'os.') [E. H. B.] TIGAVA CASTRA (It. Ant. p. 38 ; Tigavae, Plin. V. 2. s. 1 ; Ti7ai;a, Ptol. iv. 2. § 26), a fortress in MauretaniaCaesariensis, between Oppidum Novum and Malliana, variously identified with El-Uerha, Cantara, Ahd-el-Kader. TIGKA (called Tiya by Procopius, de Aed. iv. 7), a fortress in Moesia Inferior, near the Danube, and between Sesantajirista and Appiaria (Itin. Ant. p. 222). In the Not. Imp. it is called Tegra. Va- riously identified with Murotin and a place near Olughissar. [T. H. D.] TIGRANOCERTA (to TiypavSiapTa, Strab. xi. pp. 522, 532; Ptol. v. 13. § 22; t) TiypauoKepTa, Plut. Lucull. 25, &c.), literally, the city of Tigranes, ■since Kepra {kert, yerd, or karta) meant, in the Armenian dialect, city (Hesych. iii. p. 237). The later capital of Armenia, built by Tigranes on an eminence by the river Nicepliorius, a city of con- siderable size and strongly fortifi-^d. It was in a great measure populated with Greeks and Mace- donians, taken thither by force from Cajipadocia and Cilicia. After LucuUus gained his victory over Tigranes before its walls, he caused a great part of the still unfinished town to be pulled dovvn, and permitted its kidnapped inhabitants to return to their homes. Nevertheless, the town continued to exist, though we hear but little of it subsequently to this event. (Cf. Strab. II. cc. and xii. ]>. 5.39, xvi. p. 747; App. Mithr. 67; Plut. Lucull. 25, scjq.; Tac. Ami. xii. 50, xiv. 24, xv. 4; Plin. vi. 9. s. 10.) It ha.s been variously identified with the ruins of Sert on the Chahitr, with Mejafurkin, and witii Amid or Aniadiah. (See Ainsworth, ii. p. 361; St. Martin, i. p. 173; Ritter, Erdh. x. p. 87, xi. p. 106, sqq. ) [T. H. D.] TIGRIS, a celebrated river of Asia. We find various forms of its name, both in Greek and Latin writers. The earlier and more classical Greek form is o Tlyp-qs, gen. Tiypriros (Herod, vi. 20; Xen. Anab. iv. 1. § 3; Arr. Anah. vii. 7, &c.), whilst the form 6 Tiypis, gen. Ti7p£5os, and sometimes T'lypio^, is more usual among the later writers. (Strab. ii. p. 79, XV. p. 728; Ptol. v. 13. § 7; Plut. Lucull. 22, &c.) Amongst the Romans the nom. is constantly Tigris, with the gen. Tigris and ace. Tigrin and Tigrim among the better writers (Virg. Eel. i. 63; Lucan, iii. 261; Plin. vi. s. 9; Curt. iv. 5, &c.); but sometimes Tigridis, Tigridem (Lucan, iii. 256; TIGRIS. Eutrop. ix. 18; Amm. Marc, xxiii. 6. § 20, &c ) According to Pliny, the river in the upper part of its course, where it flowed gently, was called Diglito; but lower down, where it moved with more rapidity, it bore the name of Tigris, which, in the Median | language, signified an arrow (cf. Strab. xi. p. 529; Curt. iv. 9; Isid. Or. xii. c. 2, &c.) Josephus(^n<. i. 1, 2, sq.) and Zonaras (^Ann. i. 2) mention that it bore the name of Diglad ; and in its earliest course it is still called Baghele, Bidschle or Dadschla. According to the general testimony of the ancients the Tigris rose in Armenia (Xen. Anah. iv. 1. § 3; Eratosth. ap. Strab. ii. p. 80; Plin. vi. 27. s. 31; Ptol. I. c, &c.). Diodorus, indeed, places its sources in the territoiy of the Uxii in Persia (xvii. 67); but he hiis here confounded the Tigris with the Pasi- tigris. Herodotus (v. 52) observes that there were three rivers bearing the name of Tigris, but that they did not spring from the same source; one of them rising in Armenia, another in the country of the Matieni, whilst he does not mention the origin of the third. These two branches, which are not mentioned by any other ancient writer, are the more western and proper sources of the Tigris in Sophene, to the NE. of the cataracts of the Vai- phrates. The more eastern of them forms the little river Nymphius or Nymphaeus (now the Batman Su or river of Miafurahin.') The union of these two sources forms the main western arm of the Tigris, which flows for between 100 and 200 miles, first in a NE., then in a S., and lastly in an E. direction, before it joins the main eastern branch of tlie river, about 62 miles SE. cf Tigranocerta The authors subsequent to Herodotus do not notice his correct account of these sources, but confine themselves entirely to the ea.stern branch. Accord- ing to Strabo (xi. pp. 521, 529) this rose in Mount Niphates, at a distance of 2500 stadia from the sources of the Euphrates. But Pliny, who has written in most detail concerning this eastern branch, describes it as rising in a plain of Armenia Major, at a place called Elegosine (vi. 27. s. 31). It then flowed through the nitrous lake of Arethusa, without, however, mingling its waters with those of the lake, and after losing itself at a place called Zcroanda (near the present Ilazur), under a chain of the Taurus (the Nimrud Dagli), burst again from the earth, and flowed through a second lake, the Thospites. After emerging from this, it again sank into the earth with much noise and foam (cf. Strab. xvi. p. 746; Prise. Perieg. 913; Amm. Jlarc. xxiii. 6. § 15, &c.), and, after a subterranean passage of 25 miles, reappeared at a place called Nymphaeum (cf. Justin, xlii. 3). The account of Strabo, how- ever, varies very considerably from the preceding one of Pliny. The former writer mentions only one lake (xi. p. 529), the desciiption of which enfirely resembles Pliny's Arethusa, but which Strabo calls Arsene or Thopitis, meaning evidently the Thospites of Pliny, the present Wan in To*;;, on which is situated the town of Ardschisch, with which the Tigris is in reality quite unconnected. Subsequently the river approaches the Euphrates in the neigh- bourhood of Seleucia, forming in this part of its course the boundary between Assyria and Mesojio- tamia. Diodorus Siculus (ii. 11) and Curtius (v. 1) erroneously represent it as flowing through ]Iedia, which it does not even touch. Near Seleucia, it was connected with the Euphrates by means of canals (Arrian, Anab. vii. 7). After this, it again retires from the Euphrates, till at last, bending its