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Rh Nightingale, Inaccessible and Gough islands, for the purpose of working the guano deposits, was granted by the British government.

TRISTAN L’HERMITE, FRANÇOIS (1601–1655), French dramatist, was born at the chateau de Soliers in the Haute Marche about 1601. His adventures began early, for he killed his enemy in a duel at the age of thirteen, and was obliged to flee to England. The story of his childhood arid youth he embroiders in a burlesque novel, the Page disgracié. He was in succession poet to Gaston d’Orleans, to the duchesse de Chaulnes and the duke of Guise. He died on the 7th of September 1655. His first tragedy, Mariamne (1636), was also his best. It was followed by Penthée (1637), La Mori de Sénèque (1644), La Mort de Crispe (1645) and the Parasite (1653). He was also the author of some admirable lyrics. Three of his best plays are printed in the Théâtre français of 1737.

TRITHEMIUS, JOHANNES (1462–1516), German historian and divine, was born at Trittenheim on the Moselle, on the 1st of February 1462. His name was originally “von Heidenberg,” but according to the fashion of the times he adopted the name of his birthplace. After an unhappy childhood, he studied at Heidelberg, and at the age of twenty entered the Benedictine monastery of Sponheim near Kreuznach, of which, in 1485, he became abbot. He established an excellent library, and through his strict discipline and consummate scholarship soon raised the monastery to an educational institution of a high order. In 1506 he resigned, and was appointed soon after abbot of the monastery of St Jakob at Würzburg; and in this city he died on the 13th of December 1516. Trithemius was, though an accomplished scholar, untrustworthy as a chronicler, and his Annates hirsaugienses (1514), Annates de origine Francorum, as well as his Chronologia mystica (1516) are, on this account, of doubtful value. More reliance can, however, be placed on his De scriptoribus ecclesiasticis (1494) and the Catalogus illustrium virorum Germaniae (1491). He also wrote a fanatical book against sorcery, Antipalus maleficiorum (1508).

TRITON, in Greek mythology, son of Poseidon and Amphitrite, the personification of the roaring waters. According to Hesiod (Theog. 930), he dwelt with his parents in a golden palace in the depths of the sea. The story of the Argonauts places his home on the coast of Libya. When the Argo was driven ashore on the Lesser Syrtes the crew carried the vessel to Lake Tritonis, whence Triton, the local deity, guided them across to the Mediterranean (Apollonius Rhodius iv. 1552). He was represented as human down to the waist, with the tail of a fish. His special attribute was a twisted seashell, on which he blew to calm or raise the waves. Its sound was so terrible, when loudly blown, that it put the giants to flight, who imagined it to be the roar of a mighty wild beast (Hyginus, Poet. astronom. ii. 23). When Misenus, the trumpeter of Aeneas, challenged him to a contest of blowing, Triton in his jealousy flung him into the sea. In course of time Triton became the name for individuals of a class, like Pan and Silenus, and Tritons (male and female) are mentioned in the plural, usually as forming the escort of marine divinities. The beings called Centauro-Tritons or Ichthyocentaurs were of a triple nature, with the forefeet of a horse in addition to the human body and fish tail. Pausanias (ix. 21) gives a detailed description of the ordinary Triton. It is probable that the idea of Triton owes its origin to the Phoenician fish-deities.

TRIUMPH (triumphus), amongst the ancient Romans, the highest honour bestowed upon a victorious general. Originally it was only granted on certain conditions, which were subsequently relaxed in special cases. Only those who had held the office of dictator, consul or praetor were entitled to the distinction; the war must have been brought to a definite conclusion, resulting in an extension of the boundaries of the state; at least 5000 of the enemy must have been slain; the victory must have been gained over a foreign enemy, victories in civil war or over rebels not being counted. The power of granting a triumph rested with the senate, which held a meeting outside the city walls (generally in the temple of Bellona) to consider the claims put forward by the general. If they were considered satisfactory special legislation was necessary to keep the general in possession of the imperium on his entry into the city. Without this, his command would have expired and he would have become a private individual the moment he was inside the city walls, and would have had no right to a triumph. Consequently he remained outside the pomoerium until the special ordinance was passed; thus Lucullus on his return from Asia waited outside Rome three years for his triumph.

The triumph consisted of a solemn procession, which, starting from the Campus Martius outside the city walls, passed through the city to the Capitol. The streets were adorned with garlands, the temples open, and the procession was greeted with shouts of Io triumphe! At its head were the magistrates and senate, who were followed by trumpeters and then by the spoils, which included not only arms, standards, statues, &c., but also representations of battles, and of the towns, rivers and mountains of the conquered country, models of fortresses, &c. Next came the victims destined for sacrifice, especially white oxen with gilded horns. They were followed by the prisoners who had not been sold as slaves but kept to grace the triumph; when the procession reached the Capitol they were taken off to prison and put to death. The chariot which carried the victorious general (triumphator) was crowned with laurel and drawn by four horses. The general was attired like the Capitoline Jupiter in robes of purple and gold borrowed from the treasury of the god; in his right hand he held a laurel branch, in his left an ivory sceptre surmounted by an eagle. Above his head the golden crown of Jupiter was held by a slave who reminded him in the midst of his glory that he was a mortal man. Last came the soldiers shouting Io triumphe and singing