T A It 5 



for assistance. Archidamus, the son of Agesilaus, was 

 sent to them, and he was killed in fighting on their side. 

 Some years after, being hard pressed by the Lucanians 

 and Bruttii, the Tarentines applied to Alexander, king of 

 Epirus, and uncle to Alexander the Great. He came to 

 Italy with troops, obtained considerable advantages, but 

 was" at last surprised and killed by the Bruttii, near Pan- 

 dosia, B.C. 323. (Justin, xii. 2 ; Livy, viii. 24.). The Ta- 

 rentines had by this time degenerated ; like most of the 

 Greeks on the Italian coast, they had become luxurious 

 and effeminate. JE\\an (Var. Hist., xii. 30) speaks of their 

 habit of drinking early in the morning, and their appear- 

 ing intoxicated in the forum. 



In the year 282 B.C. the Romans, after having conquered 

 the Samnites, made war upon the Lucanians. The Taren- 

 tines, who saw with jealousy the encroachments of Rome, 

 unexpectedly attacked a Roman fleet, commanded by 

 the Proconsul L. Valerius, which was sailing near their 

 coast, and killed a great many of the crew. The Roman 

 senate sent commissioners to demand reparation for the 

 outrage, but the Tarentines treated them with insult. 

 Aroused however to a sense of their danger, they applied 

 to Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, for assistance, and sent vessels 

 to convey him over with his troops, B.C. 281. Pyrrhus 

 soon found that the Tarentines were too effeminate to 

 give him much support, and he was obliged to assume a 

 dictatorial power in order to enforce something like order 

 and obedience among them. Chiefly with his own troops, 

 he carried on the war against Rome for several years, but 

 defeated by the consul M.Curius Dentatus, and 

 obliged to re-embark for Epirus ; leaving however a garri- 

 son in Tarentum, B.C. 275. [PYRRHUS.] The Tarentines 

 having shortly alter quarrelled with the Epirote garrison, 

 applied to the Carthaginians for assistance to drive away 

 the Epirotes. The Romans having had notice of this 

 negotiation through Milo, the Epirote commander, sent 

 the consul L. Papirius (.'ursor, who took Tarentum, and 

 allowed the Epirote garrison to return home. It appears 

 however from Li\y [Epitome, xv. 1) that the Tarentines, 

 though treated with severity, were placed in the condition 

 of allies of Koine, which they continued to be till after 

 the battle of Cannae, when Hannibal, who occupied Cam- 

 pania and Apulia, began to carry on secret intelligence 

 with some of the Tarentine chief citizens, who were dis- 

 satisfied with their forced Roman alliance. 

 ) | In the year 212 B.C. the hostages of the Tarentines ran 

 away from Rome, but being pursued and overtaken near 

 'ina, they were brought back, and after being beaten 

 with rods were thrown down the Tarpeian rock. This 

 cruel punishment irritated the people of Tarentum. an 

 agreement was made with Hannibal, and his troops were 

 admitted into the city by night. The Roman garrison 

 stationed in the citadel was besieged by sea and by land. 

 The example of Tarentum was followed by Metapontum 

 and Thorium. The Roman garrison in the citadel of 

 Tarentum defended it most gallantly, although they suf- 

 fered greatly from want of provisions. An attempt which 

 was made to introduce supplies by vessels from Sicily was 

 defeated by the Tarentine squadron under Democrates, 

 with the loss of several Roman ships. In 209 B.C. the 

 1 Q. Kabius Maximus retook Tarentum by surprise, 

 and through the treachery of the garrison left by Hanni- 

 bal, which consisted of Bruttian auxiliaries. The Taren- 

 tines made only a slight defence. Nico, Democrates, and 

 Philomenus, the leaders of the party which was hostile to 

 Rome, fell during the assault. A great booty was made 

 by the Unman*, said to be nearly equal to that made at 

 the taking of Syracuse. But the consul Fabius abstained 

 from taking the statues of the gods, saying he would leave 

 to the Tarentines their angry deities. (.Livy, xxv. 7, 11; 

 xxvi. 39 ; and xxvii. 15, 16.) 



From that time Tarentum remained in subjection to 



Rome ; and although it greatly declined in wealth and 



importance, it was still a considerable place in the time of 



Augustus. Horace calls it 'molle Tarentum' (Satir., ii. 



:id 'imbelle Tarentum' (Epist., i. 7). The Greek 



language and manners were retained by the inhabitants 



alter the fall of the Western Empire. Tarentum was 



one of the chief strongholds retained by the Byzantine em- 



Soiitheni Italy. About A.D. 774, Romualdus, the 



obard duke of Beneventum, took Tarentum from the 



UN /iintines. The Saracens landed at Tarentum about A.D. 



830. The town was afterwards several times taken audre- 



P. C., No. 14'J.-). 



1* A R 



taken and sacked, and it was during this period that the old 

 to\yn on the mainland was abandoned, and the inhabitants 

 retired to the island as being more fitted to their reduced 

 numbers, and also better capable of defence. At the break- 

 ing up of the Longobard state of Beneventum, Tarentum 

 was for a time a separate principality, like Capua and Sa- 

 lernum. In the eleventh century it was taken by the Nor- 

 mans with the rest of Apulia, and Robert Guiscard made 

 his son Bohemund prince of Tarentum. Under the Suabian 

 dynasty, Frederic II. gave the principality of Tarentum to 

 his illegitimate son Manfred. Charles II. of Anjou gave it 

 to his younger son Philip, whose descendants acted^a con- 

 siderable part in the civil wars of the kingdom of Naples 

 under Joanna I. Tarentum came afterwards into the 

 possession of the powerful family of the Orsini, upon whose 

 extinction it reverted to the crown. 



(Giannone ; Giovani, De Antiquitate et varia Tarenti- 

 norum For tuna; D' Aquino, Delia ce Tarentinat LibrilV., 

 Naples, 1771.) 



TARARE. [R H 6NE.] 



TARASCON, a town in France, in the department of 

 Bouches du Rhone, 452 miles south-south-east of Paris, by 

 Auxerre, Lyon, Valence, Le Pont St. Esprit, and Beaucaire ; 

 and 48 miles west-north-west of Aix, the capital of the 

 department. 



Tarascon is mentioned by Strabo, who writes the name 

 Tapaaaiav, and by Ptolemy, who writes it Tafiovanwv ; but it 

 appears to have been of little importance in antient times. 

 Under the counts of Provence, to whom in the middle 

 ages it was subject, it was of more consequence from its 

 frontier position. It had a castle at least as early as A.D. 

 1251 ; of which the present castle occupies the site. This 

 latter was built, according to Millin, by Louis II. of Anjou, 

 count of Provence (A.D. 1384-1417) ; but according to 

 other authorities Charles II. le Boiteux (A.D. 1285-1309) 

 commenced the structure and Louis finished it. It is popu- 

 larly called ' Chateau du Roi Rene' (' King Rene's Castle'), 

 but it was undoubtedly erected before his accession. i u 



The town is on the left bank of the Rhone, immediately 

 opposite Beaucaire, on a rocky site sufficiently elevated 

 aho\ e the bed of the river to secure it from inundation. 

 The communication with Beaucaire was antiently by a 

 stone bridge ; a mass of stone-work, the remains of this 

 bridge, lately existed, and probably still exists, in the middle 

 of the river, between the two towns ; the rest of the bridge 

 had been swept away by the stream. In later times the 

 communication was by two bridges of boats, extending 

 one from each bank to this fragment of the old bridge. 

 Within the last few years a suspension bridge of iron-bars 

 has been constructed. 



Tarascon is surrounded by an old ruined wall flanked 

 with towers, and is entered by three gates. Some of the 

 streets are straight and tolerably wide. The castle is a pic- 

 turesque Gothic building of freestone in pretty good pre- 

 servation : from the platform on the top of the castle there 

 is an extensive view along the valley of the Rhone. Sainte 

 Marthe (Martha) is the principal church in the town ; in 

 the crypt is a monument with a marble statue apparently 

 sculptured early in the 16th century, and shown as the 

 monument of Sainte Marthe. In the same church is the 

 uncouth figure of a monster called the Tarasque, which, 

 according to the legend, fed on human flesh and haunted 

 the banks of the Rhone between Aries and Tarascon, and 

 was overcome by Sainte Marthe. This figure is paraded 

 through the city on Whit-Monday amidst the shouts of 

 the idlers of the place, whose riotous behaviour frequently 

 leads to serious accidents : it also makes part of the pro- 

 cession on the festival of Sainte Marthe. These customs, 

 which had been disused after the Revolution, were renewed 

 under the empire of Napoleon, if not before. There are 

 a town-hall, a court-house, a commercial court (Tribunal 

 de Commerce), two hospitals, a theatre, barracks, and 

 abattoirs, or public slaughter-houses ; these are most of 

 them, if not all, modern buildings. 



The population of the commune, in 1831, was 9225 for 

 the town, or 10,967 for the whole commune. The neigh- 

 bourhood of the town is very fertile, and a considerable 

 trade is carried on in corn, wine, and oil ; the townsmen 

 are engaged in throwing silk and spinning cotton-yarn, 

 and in manufacturing hussars' and grenadiers' caps, hats, 

 brandy, vinegar, and starch; there are tan-yards and 

 cooperages. There are three fairs in the year. The in- 

 dustry of the inhabitants and their lively temperament 



VOL. XXIV. I 



