Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/723

 THEODOKA THEODOSIUS 693 is held by a socket in the plate immediately above the tripod, and is furnished with a clamp C, and slow-motion screws T T. The horizon- tal circle revolves upon the plate H, upon which there is a vernier the divisions of which are sometimes read by means of an attached microscope, although it is preferable to employ a pocket microscope for the purpose. The vertical circle is also supplied with a vernier, and both circles have clamps and slow-motion screws. It is evident that if the vernier of the vertical circle in the adjusted instrument reads zero when the telescope is level, and then is moved through an arc of 30 to bring the cross hairs upon an object, such object will have an elevation of 30 above the point of observa- tion ; and also that if the horizontal circle is moved through an arc of any number of degrees to bring the cross hairs of the telescope from one object to another, the lines passing through such objects will make corresponding angles with each other at the point of observation. When used for important surveys the circles are 30 in. or more in diameter; in the smaller instruments they are 5 or 6 in. See Gillespie's " Treatise on Levelling, Topography, and Higher Surveying " (new ed., New York, 1875). THEODORA. See JUSTINIAN. THEODORE, king of Abyssinia. See ABYS- SINIA, vol. i., p. 46. THEODORE! (THEODOEETUS), a Syrian theo- logian, born at Antioch probably in 393, died in 457 or 458. He was of a noble family, en- tered a cloister, became in 423 bishop of Cyr- rhus on the Euphrates, and reunited many members of the sects with the orthodox church. He declared against the Nestorians, and at the council of Chalcedon, in 451, subscribed the condemnatory decree against Nestorius. He is esteemed as an exegetical writer (see Rich- ter, De Theodoreto Epistolarum Paulinarum Interprete^ Leipsic, 1822), and he also wrote homilies, a history of the Christian church from 324 to 429, an epitome of heretical fa- bles, the lives of 30 hermits, and various other works, including 180 letters. Collective edi- tions of his works have been edited by Sirmond (4 vols., Paris, 1642 ; supplement by Garnier, 1684), and by J. L. Schulze and Nosselt (10 parts, Halle, l769-'74), and in Migne's Patro- logie grecque, vols. xli., xlii., and xliii. A trans- lation of his " Ecclesiastical History " was pub- lished in Bohn's "Ecclesiastical Library" (1854). THEODORIC (Ger. Dietrich), surnamed THE GREAT, king of the Ostrogoths, born in Pan- nonia about 455, died in 526. He was the son of Theodemir, one of the chiefs of the Ostrogoths settled on the banks of the Danube, and when eight years old was sent as a hostage to the court of Constantinople. At the age of 18 he was restored to his father, and, after greatly distinguishing himself in war, he succeeded him as sole king of the Ostrogoths in 475. The southern part of Pannonia and Dacia had pre- viously been ceded to them by the emperor Zeno the Isaurian, of whom Theodoric was for some years a faithful ally; but the emperor broke his promises, and Theodoric ravaged the Byzantine territories till 483, when Zeno con- ferred upon him large gifts and many honors, and in 484 he named him consul. The war was renewed in 487, and Theodoric marched upon Constantinople; and to get rid of him Zeno proposed to him the invasion of Italy, then ruled by the usurper Odoacer. Consequently in 488 he marched toward the peninsula at the head of his whole people, amounting to about 200,000, with a large number of wagons. He first met in the Alpine passes and routed an army of Gepidso and Sarmatians, then defeated Odoacer himself on the banks of the Sontius (Isonzo) in 489. After two other victories, one on the banks of the Adige and the other on those of the Adda, he shut his opponent within the walls of Kavenna, and after a siege of three years received his capitulation in 493, apparently consenting to share the kingdom of Italy with him; but Theodoric soon after had his rival assassinated at a solemn ban- quet, and firmly established his power over the whole peninsula. He distributed one third of the lands to his soldiers in military tenures, but preserved as far as possible the administra- tive organization of the Roman empire. Un- der his fostering care Italy became prosperous again ; agriculture and industry revived ; liter- ature and the fine arts flourished ; internal im- provements went on, and new monuments were erected. Through well devised alliances, he controlled nearly all the barbarians that had settled in western Europe. He checked the triumphant progress of Clovis after the victory of Vouille" in 507, protected the Visigoths, and secured for himself the possession of Provence. His latter years were embittered by religious troubles. The Arians, to which sect he be- longed, being persecuted in the East, he retali- ated against the Catholics of Italy ; this brought on a conspiracy, in which the philosopher Bo- ethius, a great favorite with him, and the ven- erable Symmachus were apparently involved, and in a moment of passion he ordered them to be put to death. Their innocence being af- terward demonstrated, remorse preyed upon his mind and hastened his death. He is the Dietrich of Bern of the Nibelungenlied. THEODOSIA, or Feodosia. See KAFFA. THEODOSIES, a Roman general, beheaded in Carthage, A. D. 376. During the reign of Va- lentinian he was sent to the defence of Britain, in 367 crossed the channel at the head of a large army, and in two campaigns freed the country from the barbarians, strengthened the fortifications, and confirmed the Roman power. In 370 he returned, was made master general of the cavalry, and was stationed on the upper Danube, where he defeated the Alemanni. When in 372 Firmus, a Moor, had made him- self master of Mauritania and Numidia, and Count Romanus, the governor of Africa, un- able to oppose, had joined him in rebellion, Theodosius was sent to that province to reduce