Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 23.djvu/31

Rh sought to revive the authority of the senate, but, after a victory over the Alani near the Palus Mæotis, he succumbed to the hardships and fatigues of his new duties at Tyana in Cappadocia. Tacitus, besides being a man of immense wealth (which he bequeathed to the state), had considerable literary culture, and was proud to claim descent from the historian, whose works he caused to be transcribed at the public expense and placed in the public libraries.

 TACTICS. See.  TADMOR. See.  TAFILELT, a large oasis in (see ). The principal place is Abuam.  TAGANROG, a seaport of southern Russia, on the northern shore of the Sea of Azoff, in the government of Ekaterinoslaff, and nearly 200 miles south-east of its chief town. It is built, principally of wood, on a low cape, and, with its extensive store-houses, exchange, and wholesale shops, has the aspect of an important commercial city. It is well provided with educational institutions for children, and has a library and a theatre. The imperial palace, where Alexander I. died in 1825, and the Greek monastery (under the patriarch of Jerusalem) are worthy of notice. The advantageous situation of Taganrog was well known as early as the 13th century, when Pisan merchants founded there a colony, Portus Pisanus, which, however, was destined soon to disappear during the great migrations of the Mongols and Turks. An attempt to obtain possession of the promontory was made by Peter I., but it was not definitely annexed by the Russians until seventy years afterwards (1769). Its commercial importance dates from the second half of the present century; in 1870 its population had risen to 38,000, and after it had been brought into railway connexion with Kharkoff and Voronezh, and thus with the fertile provinces of south and south-east Russia, the increase was still more rapid, the number reaching 63,025 in 1882,—Greeks, Jews, Armenians, and West-Europeans being important elements. Notwithstanding the disadvantages of its open roadstead, the foreign trade of Taganrog rapidly expanded, the annual value of the exports having recently reached £2,500,000. The chief article of export being corn, the trade of the city, depending on the crops in south Russia, is subject to great fluctuations. Linseed and other oil-bearing grains are also important articles of commerce, as well as tallow and butter. The imports, which consist chiefly of fruits (dried and fresh), wine, oil, and coffee, are much smaller than the exports; and of the 989 ships (499,500 tons) that entered the port in 1885 no fewer than 775 (446,500 tons) were in ballast. The coasting trade, chiefly with Rostoff, was .represented in the same year by 1321 vessels (224,000 tons) entering and 1343 vessels clearing.

 TAGLIACOZZI, (1546–1599), a surgeon of wide repute, was born at Bologna in 1546, and studied at that university under Cardan, taking his degree in philosophy and medicine at the age of twenty-four. He was appointed professor of surgery and afterwards of anatomy, and achieved notoriety at least, and the fame of a wonder-worker. He died at Bologna on November 7, 1599.

 TAGLIONI, (1809–1884), a ballet dancer, was the daughter of Filippo Taglioni, an Italian master of the ballet, and was born at Stockholm 23d April 1809. She was trained by her father, who in his discipline is said to have been pitilessly severe. It was to his care and her own special talent for dancing that she owed her success, for she possessed no remarkable personal attractions. Her first appearance was at Vienna, 10th June 1822, in a ballet of which her father was the author, La Réception d'une jeune nymphe à la cour de Terpsichore. Her success was immediate, and was repeated in the chief towns of Germany. On 23d July 1827 she made her debut at the Opera House, Paris, in the Ballet de Sicilien, and aroused a furore of enthusiasm. Her style was entirely new, and may be termed ideal as opposed to the realistic and voluptuous ballet previously in vogue. Among her more remarkable performances were the dancing of the Tyrolienne in Guillaume Tell and of the pas de fascination in Meyerbeer’s Robert le Liable. At this period the ballet was a much more important feature in opera than it is now, and in fact with her retirement in 1845 the era of grand ballets may be said to have closed. In 1832 she married Comte Gilbert de Voisins, by whom she had two children. Losing her savings in speculation, she afterwards supported herself in London as a teacher of deportment, especially in connexion with the ceremony of presentation at court. During the last two years of her life she stayed with her son at Marseilles, where she died in April 1884. Taglioni is frequently mentioned in the novels of Balzac; and Thackeray, in The Newcomes, says that the young men of that epoch "will never see anything so graceful as Taglioni in La Sylphide."  TAGUS (Span. Tajo, Portug. Tejo), the longest river of the Iberian Peninsula. Its length is 566 miles, of which 192 are on or within the frontier of Portugal, and the area of its basin, according to Strelbitsky, is 31,864 square miles. The basin is comparatively narrow, and the Tagus, like the other rivers of the Iberian tableland, generally flows in a rather confined valley, often at the bottom of a rocky gorge at a considerable depth below the general level of the adjacent country. The source of the river is at the height of 5225 feet above sea-level, on the western slope of the Muela de San Juan, in the south-west of the province of Teruel. Thence it flows at first north-westwards, but, after receiving the Rio Gallo on the right, it flows west, and then south-west or west-south-west, which is its general direction for the rest of its course. The rocky gorges which occur in its course (the principal being where the river is overhung on the right bank by the ancient city of Toledo, and again at the Puente del Arzobispo, near the frontier of Estremadura) all belong to the Spanish section of the river, and in this section the stream is frequently encumbered by sandy shallows or broken by rocky rapids, and is not navigable except for short distances. The Portuguese section has a quieter current, and Villavelha, the highest point to which boats can ascend, lies within the Portuguese frontier. Regular river-navigation begins only at Abrantes, a few miles below which the Tagus is greatly widened by receiving on its right bank the impetuous Zezere from the Serra da Estrelha. Passing Santarem, the highest point to which the tide ascends, and the limit of navigation for large sailing vessels and steamers, the river divides below Salvaterra into two<section end="Tagus" />