THRALE THUCYDIDES. 



607 



Boreas, and considered sacred to Mars. The 

 Greeks early settled colonies there, and the country 

 was not destitute of rich meadows and corn-lands : 

 it abounded in mines, and the Thracian horses and 

 riders rivalled those of Thessaly. The principal 

 mountains of Thrace were the Haemus (Balkan), 

 Rhodope and Pangseus. Among the rivers, the 

 largest and most celebrated was the Hebrus (now 

 Maritza'). The remarkable places were Abdera, 

 notorious for the stupidity of its inhabitants, which, 

 however, gave birth to Democritus and Protago- 

 ras ; Sestos, on the Hellespont, celebrated in the 

 story of Hero and Leander ; and Byzantium, on the 

 peninsula on which Constantinople now stands. 

 The whole country is now included in the Turkish 

 ejalet, or province, Rumelia, or Romania. It was 

 formerly governed by several princes, then subject 

 to Macedonia, and finally formed a Roman province. 

 The tradition of the old Thracian bard, Orpheus, 

 shows that music early flourished in Thrace; and 

 if, as some writers suppose, the Greeks borrowed 

 many of their religious ceremonies and notions from 

 the Thracians, we must conclude that the early in- 

 habitants of the country were not altogether so 

 rude as the ancients often represent them. 



THRALE. See Piozzi. 



THRASIMENE, OR TRASIMENUS (now 

 Perugia) ; a lake of Italy, near Perusium, cele- 

 brated for a battle fought there between Hannibal 

 and the Romans under Flaminius, in which the lat- 

 ter were defeated with great loss, B. C. 217. (See 

 Hannibal.} " Such was the mutual animosity of 

 the combatants," says Livy (xxii, 12), "that the 

 earthquake, which overthrew many cities of Italy, 

 turned the course of rapid rivers, and tore down 

 mountains, was not heeded by them." See an in- 

 teresting note (35) on the site of the battle, in 

 Childe Harold, c. iv. st. 63. 



THRASYBULUS; a noble Athenian, who 

 rendered great service to his country, not only as a 

 general in the Peloponnesian war, during which he 

 repeatedly defeated the Spartans, but more parti- 

 cularly by delivering it from the dominion of the 

 thirty tyrants, who, after the close of the war, had 

 been imposed upon the city (B. C. 404) by the 

 victorious Spartans. (See Attica") Thrasybulus, 

 with thirty of his fellow citizens, who, like him, 

 we're lovers of liberty, left the city, btit did not re- 

 main an inactive spectator of the misfortunes of his 

 country. Determined to seize the first opportunity 

 to deliver Athens from the yoke, he occupied a 

 strong place on the borders of Attica, and assembled 

 a small body of forces, with which he bade defiance 

 to the attacks of the tyrants, and even succeeded 

 in capturing the Piraeus. Encouraged by this suc- 

 cess, the Athenians finally rose, after eight months 

 of slavery, and chased their oppressors from the 

 city. Thrasybulus then restored the old demo- 

 cratical constitution, and with it tranquillity. After 

 having reduced Lesbos, and recovered Byzantium 

 and Chalcis, he lost his life on an expedition against 

 Rhodes, during an insurrection of the inhabitants 

 of Aspendus. He was distinguished above all his 

 countrymen by his ardent love of liberty, his pure 

 patriotism, and his noble disinterestedness. 



THREE. See Triad. 



THREE KINGS, THE, OR THE THREE 

 WISE MEN OF THE EAST. The magi spoken 

 of in the New Testament, as guided by the star of 

 Jesus to Bethlehem, and offering him gold, frank- 

 incense and myrrh, are called by the Catholic 

 church kings; and the festival of Epiphany (q. v.) 



is called the feast of the three holy kings. Bede 

 even gives their names Caspar, Melchior and 

 Balthasar. Cologne boasts of possessing their 

 bodies in the Cathedral of St Peter's, where their 

 monument is shown in a chapel built by the elector 

 Maximilian, whence they are called the three kings 

 of Cologne. The legend relates that they were 

 baptized after their return to their own country ; 

 that, 300 years afterwards, their bodies were trans- 

 ferred to Constantinople by the empress Helena, 

 thence by Eustathius to Milan, and at last to Co- 

 logne by Renatus. 



THREE RIVERS. See Trois Rivieres. 



THRENODY (from ,,**<>;, grief, and <$, song) ; 

 a song of lamentation, which, unlike the narrative, 

 and therefore calmer elegy, may be the lyrical ex- 

 pression of the most violent grief or despair, with- 

 out any soothing mixture. 



THRUSH. The birds of this genus are hardly 

 distinguishable from the warblers, except by their 

 superior size. They are, however, more frugivor- 

 ous, living on berries, insects and worms. The 

 bill is strong, compressed at the sides, and the up- 

 per mandible is slightly notched near the point. 

 Their colours, in general, are not brilliant, and 

 many of them have spots on the breast. Several 

 are distinguished for their powers of song, or for 

 the delicacy of their flesh. 



THUANUS. See Thou, De, 



THUCYDIDES, the greatest of all the Greek 

 historians, was born at Athens, B. C. 470. His 

 father's name was Olorus ; his mother's Hegesipyle. 

 By the father's side he was connected with Miltia- 

 des, and by his mother's was descended from the 

 stock of the kings of Thrace. He received his 

 education at a time when Athens, having con- 

 quered her enemies, and acquired distinguished 

 power, was occupied with zeal on the highest ob- 

 jects of human effort. The philosopher Anaxago- 

 ras, and the orator Antiphon, early imparted to his 

 mind that manly tone which gives so high a value 

 to his historical works. He was excited to devote 

 himself to historical studies by the applause which 

 the Greek people bestowed upon Herodotus, when 

 he read his delightful narratives at Olympia. When 

 the Peloponnesian war broke out, he was commis- 

 sioned to raise soldiers for the service of his coun- 

 try. He lived, at that time, upon his estate on the 

 borders of Thrace, and had the superintendence of 

 the gold mines in the island of Thasos. The flame 

 of war reached these lands, and the Spartan com- 

 mander, Brasidas, besieged the city of Amphipolis, 

 which was under the protection of the Athenians. 

 When the Athenian commander saw that he could 

 not hold out without assistance, he demanded aid 

 of Thucydides, who, unfortunately, did not arrive 

 till the night after the city was surrendered. The 

 Athenians punished him by banishment. Thus the 

 active mind of Thucydides obtained the leisure ne- 

 cessary for his historical masterpiece, which he 

 wrote at Scaptesyla, in Thrace, the birth-place of 

 his wife. While in exile, he dared to enter into 

 connexion with the Spartans; not, however, to the 

 injury of his country, but for the advantage of his 

 historical work ; for he maintained in their army 

 certain persons, who gave him full and authentic 

 information of all the events of the Peloponnesian 

 war. Thus he was placed in a situation to com- 

 pare reports, and, by a careful examination, to de- 

 termine the truth. He was afterwards recalled to 

 Athens, but returned again to Thrace, and died 

 there, in his seventieth or eightieth year. Accord- 



