885 



TACITUS, MARCUS CLAUDIUS. 



TALBOT, JOHN, EARL OF SHREWSBURY. 



000 



translation of Davanzati is considered to be a model of condensed and 

 vigorous translation. A French writer considers that his own language 

 is perhaps best capable of representing the thoughts of the eloquent and 

 ingenious historian, of emulating his precision, attaining his elegance, 

 and aspiring to his energy (' Bio?. Univ.,' art. ' Tacite ') ; an opinion 

 which is perhaps not true. D'Alcmbert translated various passages 

 from Tacitus. The earliest English translations are by Henry Saville, 

 1598, of the 'Histories' and the ' Agricola;' and by Grunway, 1698, of 

 the ' Annals' and the ' Germany.' The English version of Murphy, which 

 first appeared in 1793, is loose, diffuse, and feeble, and hardly 

 expresses the meaning of the original; as a work of art, being a trans- 

 lation of a work which is above all other historical works characterised 

 by its art, it is contemptible. Gordon's version, which appeared 

 before that of Murphy, is a harsh and rugged version ; but it is 

 toloraMy faithful to the meaning of the original, and was probably 

 useful in helping Murphy to it. 



For further information on the editions and translations of Tacitus, 

 and on works in illustration of him, see Hain's Repertorium ; and 

 Schweijrger's Handbuch der Classichen Bibliographic. 



TACITUS, MARCUS CLAUDIUS, a Roman emperor, was the 

 successor of Aurelian. After the interregnum of nearly seven months, 

 which followed upon the death of that prince, the senate, by request 

 of the army, met to elect an emperor. At the advanced age of 

 seventy-five, Tacitus, then princeps senatus, was chosen unanimously 

 in spite of his unwillingness to accept a dignity too great for his 

 declining years. The army confirmed the act of the senate, and the 

 new emperor commenced his reign in September A.D. 275, with the 

 most favourable assurances from all classes of his subjects. Tacitus 

 immediately instituted some salutary reforms relating to the coinage 

 and other matters. He restrained the luxury of the times by 

 sumptuary laws, and was himself an example of the greatest temper- 

 ance, modesty of deportment, and single-minded magnanimity. He 

 gave up his whole private fortune to the state, and introduced no 

 change in his dress or w.'iy of life. He was of very studious habits, 

 and gave orders that the works of the historian Tacitus, from whom 

 he claimed descent, should be preserved with the greatest care in the 

 public libraries, and copies of them made every year. He used his 

 power with great forbearance, except perhaps in the punishment of 

 those concerned in the murder of Aurelian, whom he is said to have 

 put to death without discriminating their several degrees of guilt. 

 The frontiers of the empire were at this time in a disturbed state, and 

 Tacitus committed the chief command of the East to Probus, in whom 

 he reposed entire confidence. 



The Scythse, or Goths, pretending that they had been summoned 

 by Aurelian to aid him in his Persian war, made an irruption at this 

 time from the Palus Mseotis into Pontus and Cappadocia. 



Coin of Tacitus. 



British Museum. Actual size. Copper. Weight 54^ grains. 

 (The C after IMP denotes Csesar.) 



Tacitus proceeded thither in person with his brother Florianus, 

 and having first tried conciliatory measures, compelled them to retire 

 by force of arms. His reign, commenced with such fair prospects, 

 was now prematurely and abruptly terminated. He had appointed 

 Maximinus governor of Syria, who treated his subjects with such 

 cruelty, that the magistrates of the towns in that province, aided by 

 those yet surviving of the murderers of Aurelian, conspired against 

 him and killed him. Despair of pardon led them to commit a greater 

 crime, and they formed designs against the life of the emperor, who 

 fell a victim to their treason at Tyana in Cappadocia, after a reign of 

 about eight months, in the spring of the year 276, According to one 

 report, he died of disease, harassed by seditions ; but the statement of 

 Zosimus and Zouaras, that he was murdered by the conspirators, 

 seems entitled to greater credit. After his death, his brother 

 Florianus seized the empire, but was' put to death two or three 

 months afterwards. Gibbon attributes to Tacitus many of the mea- 

 sures introduced at this time to revive the power of the senate. It is 

 certain that he showed great deference to that body ; and when they 

 refused to make his {brother Florianus consul because the time of 

 election had expired, he expressed himself pleased with their frank- 

 ness. Th e coins of Tacitus record his victory over the Scythians by 

 the inscriptions Victoria Gothi and Victoria Pontica ; see also Gruter, 

 cxcii. 5 ; and for bis Life Vopiscus, in the ' Historia Augusta;' Zosi- 

 mus; Zonaras; Aurelius Victor, De Vit. et Mm: Imperat. Roman.; 

 Tillemojit, Histoire des Empereurs, iii. ; Gibbon, ii. 



TACQUET, ANDREW, a mathematician of some celebrity, who 

 was born at Antwerp in 1611. He entered at an early age into the 

 order of the Jesuits, and was one of the many members of that body 

 who distinguished themselves by the works which they composed for 



the advancement of the sciences. He held the post of professor of 

 mathematics during fifteen years, and died December 23, 1660. 



Tacquet published at Antwerp, in 1651, a work in 4to, in four books, 

 on the sections of cylinders and on the figures formed by the revolu- 

 tions of segments of circles ; and to these books he added a fifth in 

 1659. In the year 1655 he published, in 8vo, 'Elementa Geometric 

 plansQ ac solidao, quibus accedunt ex Archimede theoremata;' and, in 

 the same year, ' Arithmetic Theoria et Praxis accurate demonstrata.' 

 These two last works appear to have been for a long time in use in the 

 schools of the Jesuits. 



A collection of the principal works of Tacquet was published at 

 Antwerp in 1669, in two folio volumes, under the title of 'Opera 

 Mathematica demonstrata et propugnata b, S. L.,' &c. Among these 

 works are Astronomiao libri octo; Geometriso Practicso libri ires; 

 Optico3 libri tres ; Catoptricso libri trcs ; Architecture Militaris liber 

 unus; Cylindricorurn et Annularium libri quinque; and Dissertatio 

 de Circulorum Volutionibus. 



In the treatise on astronomy, the author, in conformity to the 

 system of Ptolemy, considers that the earth is immovable at the centre 

 of the universe; but it is thought that he adopted this supposition 

 less from a conviction of its truth than through deference to the 

 authority of Riccioli, whose work he follows, and through an unwilling- 

 ness to admit the hypothesis of Copernicus on account of it* contradic- 

 tion to the letter of certain passages in the Scriptures. In the work 

 on cylinders, &c., he determines the superficies and volumes of bodies 

 formed on cutting a cylinder by planes in different directions ; and he 

 investigates the surfaces and volumes formed by the revolutions of 

 different segments of circles and of the conic sections about axes in 

 given positions : tin reasonings are conducted by geometrical processes 

 agreeably to the methods then recently introduced by Cavalieri and 

 Gregory of St. Vincent. In treating the theorems selected from 

 Archimedes, Tacquet assumes, in order to diminish the length of the 

 demonstrations, that regular polygons may be inscribed within and 

 described about circles, till at length their areas and peripheries differ 

 respectively from those of the circles by magnitudes less than the least 

 that can be assigned : then, considering the polygons and circles as 

 identical, he obtains the ratio of the peripheries of the circles and the 

 equivalent for their areas : by assuming also that there may be 

 described about a sphere a polyhedron whose surface shall differ from 

 that of the sphere by a magnitude less than the least that can be 

 assigned, he determines both the volume and the superficies of the 

 latter. Archimedes had demonstrated that the volume and superficies 

 of a sphere are to those of a circumscribing cylinder in the ratio of 

 2 to 3 ; and Tacquet, by such assumptions as those above mentioned, 

 proved that the same ratio exists between the volumes and superficies 

 of a cylinder and of an equilateral cone, when both are described 

 about the sphere. 



TAFFI, A'NDREA, born at Florence, in 1213, deserves mention as 

 having been the first who introduced among his countrymen the art 

 of painting in mosaic. Having heard of some eminent Greek artists 

 who were executing paintings in mosaic in the church of St. Mark at 

 Venice, he went to that city and formed an intimate friendship with 

 Apollonius, one of the principal of those artists, and prevailed on him to 

 accompany him to Florence, to teach him the best manner of working 

 in mosaic, and the method of compounding the most durable kind of 

 cement. On their arrival at Florence they executed together several 

 works, which were highly admired. Tain's chief performance was a 

 Dead Christ, of large dimensions, in a chapel at Florence. He died in 

 that city, in 1294, at the age of eighty-one. 



TAGLIACOZIO, GASPER. [TALIACOTIUS.] 



TALBOT, JOHN, EARL OF SHREWSBURY, a famous warrior in 

 the reign of Henry V. and Henry VI. was the second son of Richard 

 Lord Talbot, and was born in 1373 at Bletchmore in Shropshire. He 

 married the heiress of the barony of Furnival, which title he after- 

 wards bore by courtesy. In the first year of the reign of Henry V. 

 (1413) he was confined in the Tower, it is supposed on suspicion of 

 being a favourer of the House of York, but his imprisonment was a 

 short one. In 1414, Ireland being in a very unquiet state, it was 

 thought necessary to appoint a military man as chief governor, and 

 Talbot was selected. While his sovereign was achieving successes hi 

 France, Talbot was equally active in Ireland. He subdued many of the 

 chiefs, one after the other, making those he had conquered serve in 

 arms against those remaining in revolt, and he at length captured 

 MacMurrough, the powerful chief of Leinster, who was sent prisoner 

 to the Tower of London. In 1419 he was recalled to England, but in 

 1425 he was again invested with the office for somewhat less than 

 a year. From 1419 he chiefly served in the French wars under 

 Henry V. and Henry VI. ; but it was chiefly in the latter reign, when 

 he was entrusted with separate commands, that he distinguished 

 himself by his courage, generalship and courtesy. After the death of 

 the Duke of Bedford the conduct of the war rested almost entirely 

 upon him. The battles and sieges in which he was engaged while 

 heroically supporting the declining cause of Henry VI. are almost 

 innumerable ; but the most remarkable, were the siege of Orleans, 

 where he was associated with the Earl of Salisbury, which was raised 

 in 1429 by Jeanne d'Arc. [JEANNE D'ARC.] To this followed the battle 

 of Patay, in 1429, where, after performing prodigies of valour, he was 

 taken prisoner. The French authorities say that Xaintrailles, one of 



