T I G 



445 



T I L 



death is unknown. His successor was Artavasdes. [MiTHRt- 

 DATES ; POMPKIUS ; LUCULLUS.] 



(Valerius Maximus, v. 1, 9 ; Velleius Paterculus, ii. 33, 

 1, and c. 37; Cicero, Pro Lege Manilla ; Woltersdorf, 

 I'ninmentatio Vitam Mithridatis M. per annos digestam 

 sintetix, Goettingae, 1812.) 



TIGRA'NES, prince of Armenia and lord of Sophene, 

 was the son of Tigranes, king of Armenia. During the 

 last war between the Romans and Mithridates aided by 

 his ally king Tigranes, prince Tigranes forsook his father and 

 went over to the Romans. When his father humiliated 

 himself before Pompey, he sat by the side of the Roman 

 general, but he did not rise before his father, nor did he 

 show him the slightest degree of filial respect. Having 

 been created lord of Sophene and Gordyene, he refused to 

 Mirrender the treasures of Sophene to Pompey, who 

 suspected him of being in secret communication with 

 Phraates, the king of the Parthians, whose daughter he had 

 married. Tigranes also became suspected of having formed 

 a plan for seizing or putting to death his father, and 

 accordingly he was arrested by order of Pompey, who sent 

 lu'm to Rome. He figured in the triumph of Pompey. 



Appian (De Bella Mithrid., c. 105 and 117) states that 

 Tigranes was afterwards put to death in his prison. [Ti- 



t,UA.\ES.] 



TIGRANO'CERTA (T. rp avopra), for some time the 

 capital of Armenia, was built by king Tigranes after he 

 had extended his dominion over Mesopotamia, Syria, and 

 Phoenicia. Artaxata, the old capital on the Araxes, being 

 situated in the north and the neighbourhood of the Cauca- 

 sian nalions, then the allies of Armenia, Tigranes seems 

 to have thought it convenient to have his capital near 

 those countries, which often required his presence on 

 account of their possession being still insecure. This 

 danger arose principally from the neighbourhood of the 

 Romans, who, from the time when Attains left them his 

 kingdom of Pergamus by testament (B.C. 133), formed 

 designs on all Asia Minor, and at the time of the founda- 

 tion of Tigranocerta (between 84 and 74 B.C., but nearer 

 ti.i SI, were at war with Mithridates, the neighbour and ally 

 of Tigranes. Tigranocerta was situated a short distance 

 from (he Upper Tigris, on the Nicephorius, a river of con- 

 siderable breadth, as Tacitus states. Stert or Sered, a 

 small town, surrounded by antient ruins, is generally sup- 

 posed to be on the site of Tigranocerta. Sered is situated 

 on the banks of a small river, the modern name of which 

 is unknown, and which flows into another river of consider- 

 able length, the Bedlis of Haji Khalfah, which has its 

 sources south-east of lake Van, and flows into the Tigris. 

 This latter river is called Khabur by D'Anville, but this is 

 a mistake, the Khabur, according to Haji Khalfah, cited 

 by Rennell, being another tributary river of the Tigris 

 nearer its middle course. It has been supposed that the 

 river C'entrites was also called Nicephorius, and this 

 opinion is principally founded on the circumstance of 

 tin: river which parses Sered being a very small stream, 

 while the Nicephorius at Tigranocerta was of a consider- 

 able breadth. This opinion however is rejected by Ren- 

 nell, and indeed no mins have been found on the banks 

 of the C'entrites, though it has not yet been shown 

 that there are none. We are likewise ignorant as to the 

 changes which may have taken place in the direction of 

 theCentrites, which, after having left the mountains at the 

 village of Kala Zerke, flows through an open and level 

 country at some leagues distance east from Sered. Ac- 

 confing to Tacitus, Plutarch, and Appian, Tigranocerta 

 had very strong fortifications ; its suburbs contained gar- 

 dens arid fish-ponds. The town was inhabited partly 

 by barbarians, and partly by Greeks, the inhabitants 

 of twelve Greek towns who were transplanted thither by 

 Tigranes after he had ravaged Cappndocia. The mili- 

 tary position of Tigranocerta was admirably chosen. By 

 (nation opposite the passage formed by the narrow 

 valley of 1he C'entrites in the C'arduchian Mountains, it 

 commanded one of the principal roads which led and still 

 leads from the valley of the Tigris into Armenia across 

 the mountains. It was also opposite the gorge in the Cardu- 

 chian Mountains, which, it short distance south of the 

 junction of the Ccntrites with the Tigris, came so close to 

 the Tigris as to render it impossible for an army to 

 move along the left bank of the river. Xenophon, in con- 

 flicting the retreat of the ten thousand, apparently in- 

 tended to enter Armenia by the valley of the C'entrites, 



but he found this passage between the Tigris and the Car- 

 duchian Mountains impracticable ; and taking suddenly a 

 north-east direction, he ascended the steep Carduchian 

 Mountains, and crossed the Centrites in its upper part. 



Master of Tigranocerta, the king of Armenia could sud- 

 denly invade Cappadocia, Mesopotamia, and Syria ; and 

 in case of defeat he could retreat under the walls of 

 Tigranocerta and defend the defiles in the mountains 

 against a superior army. Lucullus, in his campaign 

 against Mithridates and Tigranes, laid siege to this key of 

 Armenia before he ventured to enter the defiles. The 

 united kings hastened to relieve the town, but they were 

 beaten, and Tigranocerta with immense treasures fell into 

 the hands of the victor (6th October, 69 B.C.), who sent 

 the greater part of the Greek inhabitants back to their 

 homes in Cappadocia. After the fall of Tigranocerta, all 

 Armenia was open to the Romans, who overran the coun- 

 try as far as Artaxata. But no sooner was Lucullus in- 

 formed that Phraates, the king of the Parthians, was about 

 to attack him, than, instead of descending the Araxes and 

 making an attack on the northern part of Media, he hast- 

 ened back to Tigranocerta. If he had remained a little 

 longer on the Araxes, the Parthians would have forced 

 the position of Tigranocerta, and the Roman army would 

 have been shut up within Armenia. Strabo (p. 532, Cas.) 

 says thatj when Lucullus took Tigranocerta, it was only half 

 finished, and that after its destruction there was nothing 

 but a little village on the spot. However it soon became 

 again a town, and in the wars of Corbulo, 63 A.D., it was 

 a considerable and well-fortified place. (Tacitus, Annal., 

 xv. 4.) Hesychius, s. v. Kepra, says that xipra signifies a 

 town, in Armenian, and this opinion is corroborated by 

 Stephanus Byzantinus s. r. Ttypaw5pra, who says that, in 

 the language of the Parthians, Ttypavoicepra is the same as 

 TiypaiWiToXic in Greek. The word ' certa ' also occurs in 

 Carcathiocerta, a town which is also called Amida, and is 

 now known by the name of Kari-Amid and Diyarbekir. 

 Soping, in his notes to Hesychius, says that pra or cripra 

 is the root of Carthago. [TIGRANES; LUCULLUS; POMPKY.] 



.Strabo, p. 532, 539, 747, Cas. ; Appian, De Bella 

 Mithrid.; Plutarch, Lucullus; Pompeius ; Tacitus, An- 

 nul., xii. 50; xiv. 24; xv. 4, &c. ; Rennell, Illustra- 

 tions of the History of the Expedition of Corns, 'and the 

 Retreat of the Ten Thousand Greeks; Rennell, Geo- 

 graphy of Asia Minor.) 



TIGRIS, River. [See End of Letter T.] 



TIGRISO'MA, Mr. Swainson's name for the Tiger- 

 Bitterns. 



Subgeneric Character. Bill as in Ardca. Face, and 

 sometimes the chin, naked. Legs almost feathered to the 

 knees. Inner toe rather shorter than the outer. Claws 

 short, stout, regularly curved. Anterior scales reticulate 

 or hexagonal. Mr. Swainson considers this to be the 

 rasorial type, and he arranges it as a subgenus of the 

 family Ardeadee [HEROXS], between Butor, Antiq., and 

 Nyctiardea. Example Tigrisoma lineatum, ' PI. Col.' 860. 



(N.B. According to the principle generally received 

 among zoologists, neither Butor nor Nyctiardea can be 

 retained as generic names. The first is identical with the 

 Botaurus of Brisson and Stephens : for the reasons against 

 admitting the second, see NYCTICORAX.) 



TI.IU'CA, M. Lesson's name for a genus of birds 

 (Chrysopteryx, Sw. ; Attila, Less. ; Ampelis, Nordm). 

 Mr. G. R. Gray arranges it between Calyptomena, Raffl., 

 and Procnias, Hoffm., under the Ampelincc, Mr. Gray's 

 third subfamily of the Ampelidee. 



TILBURG is an inland town in the kingdom of the 

 Netherlands, in the province of North Brabant and district 

 of Bois-le-Duc : it is situated in a heath on the banks of 

 the river Ley, 13 miles east of Breda, 14 south-west of 

 Bois-le-Duc, and 38 north-east of Antwerp. It has three 

 churches, a large castle, and 12,000 inhabitants, of whom 

 between 5000 and 6000 are employed in the manufacture of 

 fine woollen cloth and kerseymeres. They likewise manu- 

 facture calmucs, beaver coating, baize, and cloth for the 

 army. Extensive barracks have been built by the present 

 king of Holland. Lying out of the great road from Flan- 

 ders to Holland, it, is little visited by travellers. 



TILBURY FORT, a fortification erected on the north 

 bank of the river Thames, opposite to Gravesend, for the 

 purpose of commanding the navigation of the river. It 

 was originally formed as a mere block-house in the time 

 of Henry VIII. : but after the Dutch fleet, under De Ruy- 



