T I B 



425 



T I B 



writer. Tacitus calls him an Egyptian, but this only means 

 that he was a native of Alexandria ; for he was a Jew, 

 though he afterwards adopted paganism. Nero appointed 

 him governor of Judaea, where he succeeded Cuspius 

 Fadus, and he made him a Roman eques. In the last 

 campaign of Corbulo against the' Parthians, Tiberius Alex- 

 ander and Vinianus Annius, the son-in-law of Corbulo, 

 were given as hostages to king Tiridates, who came to the 

 Roman camp for the purpose of settling his differences 

 with the Romans (A.D. 63). Tiberius Alexander was 

 afterwards appointed prefect of Egypt, in which capacity 

 he quelled a dangerous insurrection of the Jews of Alex- 

 andria, who were jealous of the favour which Nero showed 

 the Greek inhabitants of that town. The resistance of the 

 Jews was so obstinate, that Tiberius was obliged to employ 

 two legions and five thousand Libyan soldiers against 

 them ; and it is said that more than fifty thousand Jews 

 perished on this occasion. On the 1st of July, 69, Tiberius 

 Alexander proclaimed Vespasian emperor, pursuant to a 

 scheme which had been concerted by Vespasian, Titus, 

 and Mucianus, the proconsul of Syria. In consequence of 

 this event, the 1st of July, 69, is regarded as the beginning 

 of the reign of Vespasian, who showed great regard for 

 his governor of Egypt. When Titus, the successor of Ves- 

 pasian, was about to undertake the siege of Jerusalem, 

 which resulted in its capture, he was accompanied by Ti- 

 berius Alexander. 



(Josephus, A ii tiff. Jud. and De Bella Jud.; Suetonius, 

 its; Tacitus, Annul., xv. 28; Hist.,\. 11; ii. 74, 

 79 ; the notes of Ernesti to Suetonius and Tacitus.) 



TIBERIUS (Ti/Stpioc), an Alexandrine grammarian, who 

 probably lived in the fourth century of our aera. Suidas 

 (,. . Tt0t(xof), who calls him a philosopher and a sophist, 

 ascribes to him a long list of rhetorical works, all of which 

 are lost, with the exception of one, which formerly used to 

 be called iripi ruv wapa ^fioaSivti a\i}^ar>i>v, and which is 

 one of the best works of the kind that were produced at 

 the time. The cditio princeps of it, which is ascribed to 

 Leo Allatius, appeared at Rome in 1643. The next edi- 

 tion is that of Gale, who incorporated the work of Tiberius 

 in his ' Rhetores Selecti,' Oxford, 1676, 8vo. A reprint of 

 this collection of rhetoricians was edited by J. F. Fischer, 

 Leipzig, 1773, 8vo. In all these editions the work of Ti- 

 berius contains only 22 short chapters, which treat on Sche- 

 mata, that is, those forms of expression which are not the 

 natural forms, but are adopted for ornament or use. In 

 the year 1815, J. F. Boissonade published at London a new 

 edition, in 8vo., from a Vatican manuscript, in which the 

 work is called irtpi a^miartav ptiropuciav, and in which there 

 are 26 chapters more than had ever before been pub- 

 lished ; and this second part of the work treats on the so- 

 called ' figurae elocutionis,' or the ornamental forms of 

 elocution. This edition of Boissonade also contains a work 

 of Rufus, entitled ri-^vi] (>i]Topu:ij, the author of which has 

 only become known through the Vatican MS. containing 

 the complete work of Tiberius : in the editions of Gale and 

 Fiadier it was called the work of an anonymous writer. A 

 few fragments of other works of Tiberius are preserved in 

 the scholiast on Hermogenes, ii., pp. 385 and 401, edit. 

 Aldus. 



'Ooddeck, Initia Hixtnriae Graecorum Literariae, ii., 

 p. 173: Westermann, Geschichte der Griech. Beredtsam- 

 keit, p. 251, &c.j 



TIBE'RIUS ABSI'MARUS became emperor of the East, 

 in A.I). 698, under the following circumstances: Leontius 

 dethroned and banished the tyrant Justinian II., and having 

 ned the imperial title in 095, continued the war with 

 the Arabs in Africa. Notwithstanding the Greeks were 

 v the Berbers, they lost Carthage in 697; they 

 reconquered it shortly afterwards, but in 698 the Arabs 

 retook the town from the Greeks and entirely destroyed it. 

 A powerful fleet, commanded by the patrician John, was 

 then off Carthage ; but although John entered the harbour 

 with a division of his fleet, and landed a body of troops, 

 his measures had only a partial effect, and he was obliged 

 to leave Carthage to her fate. The destruction of this 

 famous town was attributed by the Greek officers to the 

 incoi. nf John, and they were afraid to return to 



Constantinople without having prevented the ruin of Car- 

 thage. Ali.-iimarus, the commander of the Cibyratae, or 

 the trii.ip, ,if the province of Cibyra, then the collective 

 r.ami- of ('aria and Lyoia, turned the discontent of the sol- 

 diers to hii own profit. He persuaded his men that the 

 P. C., No. 1541. 



emperor would punish them severely for not having 

 obtained some advantage over the Arabs, and that thej r 

 ran the risk of suffering for the faults of their commander- 

 in-chief. When the fleet was off Crete, a mutiny broke 

 out. The Cibyratae proclaimed Absimarus emperor, the 

 rest of the fleet followed their example, and John was 

 massacred. 



Absimarus having arrived at Constantinople, cast anchor 

 in the bay of Ceras (now the Golden Horn), between this 

 city and the suburb of Sycae. . Leontius prepared a vigor- 

 pus resistance ; but the courage of his soldiers and of the 

 inhabitants was weakened by an epidemic disease, and at 

 last Absimarus found his way into the town by bribing 

 some sentinels. 



Absimanis assumed the name of Tiberius and was 

 acknowledged emperor : his rival, Leontius, had his nose 

 and his ears cut off, and was confined in a monastery. 

 Tiberius Absimarus continued the war with the Arabs, 

 and appointed his brother Heraclius commander-in-chief. 

 This experienced general conquered Syria in 699 and 700, 

 and treated the Mohammedan inhabitants most barbar- 

 ously : it is said that two hundred thousand of them lost 

 their lives by the sword of the Greeks. This war continued 

 during 701, 702, and 703 ; and, although the Greeks did 

 not recover Carthage, they obtained many signal advan- 

 tages. Tiberius Absimarus had great influence in Italy, 

 where popes Sergius and John VI. were continually 

 harassed by John Platys, and afterwards by Theophylact, 

 the Greek exarch of Ravenna. 



Tiberius Absimarus lost his crown 1)y a sudden revohi 

 tion. When Leontius dethroned Justinian II., this prince 

 had his nose cut oft', and was banished to the town of 

 Cherson, in the present Crimea. Some years after, he 

 fled to the khaghan, or khan, of the Khazars [TARTARS, 

 Khaxurs], who received him respectfully, and assigned for 

 his residence Phanagoria, once an opulent city, on the 

 island of Tamatarcha. ^TAMAN.] The khaghan, whose 

 name was Busirus, gave him in marriage his sister Theo- 

 dora; but Tiberius Absimarus bribed the khan with a 

 large sum of gold, and Justinian was only saved by 

 the affection of Theodora, w'ho discovered to him the 

 treacherous design of her brother. After strangling with 

 his own hand the two emissaries of the khaghan, Justinian 

 rewarded the love of his wife by repudiating her and send- 

 ing her back to her brother Busirus ; and he fled to Ter- 

 belis, or Terbellus, the king of the Bulgarians. He now 

 formed the plan of recovering his throne, and he purchased 

 the aid of Terbelis by promising him his daughter and a 

 part of the imperial treasury. At the head of fifteen thou- 

 sand horse, they set out for Constantinople. Tiberius 

 Absimarus was dismayed by the sudden appearance of his 

 rival, whose head had been promised by the khaghan, and 

 of whose escape he was yet ignorant. Justinian had still 

 some adherents in Constantinople, who introduced his 

 troops into the city by means of an aqueduct. Tiberius 

 escaped from Constantinople, but he was seized at Apol- 

 lonia on the Pontus Euxinus (705), and Justinian ordered 

 him, his brother Heraclius, and the deposed Leontius, who 

 was still alive, to be dragged into the Hippodrome. Before 

 their execution, the two usurpers were led in chains to the 

 throne, and forced to prostrate themselves before Justinian, 

 who had sworn not to spare one of his enemies. Planting 

 his feet on their necks, the tyrant watched the chariot-race 

 for more than an hour, while the people shouted out the 

 words of the Psalmist, ' Thou shall trample on the asp and 

 basilisk, and on the lion and dragon shalt thou set thy 

 foot.' He then gave orders to behead Tiberius, Leontius, 

 and Heraclius. Justinian II. reigned till 711. The Greeks 

 gave him the surname of Rhinptmetus, that is, ' he whose 

 nose is cut off.' Tiberius Absimarus had two sons, Theo- 

 dore and Constantine, who probably perished with their 

 father. It is said however that Theodore, who is also 

 called Theodosius, survived his father, and became bishop 

 of Ephesus and one of the leaders of the Iconoclasts ; but 

 this is doubtful. 



(Theophanes ; Cedrenus ; Zonaras ; Gibbon, Decline and 

 Fall ; Le Beau, Histoire du Bus Empire.) 



TI'BET is the most southern of the three great table- 

 lands of Middle Asia. The name Tibet is derived from 

 ' Thu-pho,' that is, the country of the ' Thu,' who founded 

 an empire in Northern Tibet in the sixth century A.D. 

 The name ' Thu-pho ' has been mutilated by foreigners, 

 and especially by the Mongols, into Thupo, Tobut, Tobbt, 



VOL. XXIV. 3 I 



