Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1236

 1212 TIRYNS. Dorians. The strong fortress of Tirvns was dan- j^erous to the neighbouring Dorian colony of Arjros. After the dreadful defeat of the Argives by Cleo- nienes, their slaves took possession of Tiryns and held it for many years, (Herod, vi. 8.3.) In the Persian War the Tirynthians sent some men to the battle of Plataea. (Herod, is. 28.) Subsequently their city was taken by the Argives, probably about the same time as Mycenae, b. c. 468. The lower city was entirely destroyed; the citadel was disman- tled; and the inhabitants fled to Epidaurus and Halieis, a town on the coast of Hermionis. (Strab. viii. p. 373 ; Ephorus, ap. Steph. B. s. v. 'AXius ; Eustath. ad Horn. II. ii. ,559, p. 286.) It was pro- bably owing to this circumstance that Steplianus B. («. V. Tipvvs) was led into the mistake of saying that Tiryns was formerly called Halieis. The Ti- rynthians, who did not succeed in effecting their escape, were removed to Argos. (Paus. ii. 25. § 8.) From this time Tiryns remained uninhabited; and when Pausanias visited the city in the second cen- tury of our era, he saw nothing but the remains of the walls of the citadel, and beneath them towards tlie sea the so-called chambers of the daughters of Proetus. No trace of the lower city appears to have been left. The citadel was named Licymna, after Licymnius, son of Electryon, who was shiin at Tiryns by Tleptolemu.s, son of Hercules. (Strab. vii. p. 373; Pind. 01. vii. 47.) Hence Statins calls the marshes in the neighbourhood of Tiryns " stagna Licymnia." {Theh. iv. 734.) Theophrastus represents the Ti- rynthians as celebrated for their laughing propen- ."-ities, which rendered them incapable of attention to serious business {ap. Athen. vi. p. 261, d.). The ruins of the citadel of Tiryns are now called Paleo Andpli. They occupy the lowest and flattest of several rocky hills, which rise like islands out of the plain. The impression which they produce upon the beholder is well described by Col. Mure: " This colossal fortress is certainly the greatest curiosity of the kind in existence. It occupies the table summit of an oblong hill, or rather knoll, of small extent or elevation, completely encased in masses of enormous stones, rudely piled in tiers oije above another, into the form alternately of towers, curtain walls, abutments, gates, and covered ways. There is not a fragment in the neighbourhood indicating the existence of suburb or outer town at any period; and the whole, rising abruptly from the dead level of the surrounding plain, produces at a distance an effect very similar to that of the hulk of a man-of-war floating in a liarbour." The length of the summit of the rock, according to Col. Leake's measiu'ement, is about 250 yards, the breadth from 40 to 80, the height above the plain from 20 to 50 feet, the direction nearly N. and S. The entire circuit of the walls still remains more or less preserved. They consist of huge masses of stone piled upon one another, as Pausanias describes. The wall is from about 20 to 25 feet in thickness, and it had two entrances, one on the eastern, and the other on the southern side. " In its general design the fortress appears to have consisted of an upper and lower enclosure of nearly equal dimen- sions, with an intermediate platform, which may have served for the defence of the upper castle against an enemy in possession of the lower. The southern entrance led by an ascent to the left into the upper iuclosure, and by a direct passage between the upper inclosure and the eastern wall of the for- tress into the lower iuclosure, liaving also a branch TISIA. to the left into the middle platform, the entrance into which last was nearly opposite to the eastern gate. Besides the two principal gates, there was a postern in the western side. On either side of the great southern entrance, that is to say, in the eastern as well as in the southern wall, there were galleries in the body of the wall of singular construction. In the eastern wall, where they are better preserved, there are two parallel passages, of which the outer has six recesses or niches in the exterior wall. These niches were probably intended to serve for the pro- tracted defence of the gallery itself, and the galleries for covered communications leading to towers or places of arms at the extremity of them. The pas- sage which led directly from the southern entrance, between the upper inclosure and the eastern wall into the lower division of the fortress, was about J 2 feet broad. About midway, there still exists an immense door-post, with a hole in it for a bolt, showing that the passage might be clo.sed upon oc- casion. The lower inclosure of the fortress was of an oval shape, about 100 yards long and 40 broad ; its walls formed an acute angle to the north, and several obtuse angles on the east and west. Of the upper inclosure of the fortress very little remains. There is some appearance of a wall of separation, dividing the highest part of all from that next to the southern entrance ; thus forming four interior divi- sions besides the passages." (Leake.) The general appearance of these covered galleries is shown in the accompanying drawing from Cell's Itinerary. (Leake, Morea, vol. ii. p. 350, se(i.; Mure, Tmirin Greece, vol. ii. p. 173, seq., Curtius, Ptloponnesos, vol. ii. p. 388, seq.) GALLKHY AT TIllYNS. TISAEUM (Tio-aTof : Bardjoia). a lofty moun- tain on the promontory of Aeantium in Magnesia in Thessaly, at the entrance of the Pagasaean gulf, on which stood a temple of Artemis, and where in B.C. 207 Philip v., son of Demetrius, caused watch-lires to be lighted, in order to obtain immediate knowledge of the mcjvements of the Roman fleet. (Apoll. Ehod. i. 568; Val. Place, ii. 6; Polyb. x. 42; Liv. xxviii. 5; Le.ake, Northern Greece, vol. iv. p. 397.) TISCANUS (Jornand. Get. 5), or TyscA {lb. 34; Geogr. Rav. iv. 14); a river in Thrace, a tri- butary of the Danube, the m.odern Tkeiss. [T.H.D.] TISEBARICE. [Tesebarica.J Tl'SIA (T«7ia: Eth. Ticriar-ns), a town of the Bruttii, mentioned by Appian in his account of the operations of Hannibal in that country. It had been occupied by that general with a Carthaginian gar- rison, but was betrayed by one of the citizens into the hands of the Romans, who held it for a short time, but it was soon recovered by Hannibal. (Ap- pian, Hann. 44.) It is probably the same place which is called Isia by Diodoru.s, from whom we