THUSNELDA TIBERIUS. 



Gil 



111 which there is a valuable salmon-fishery. The ; 

 old town is an ill-built irregular place, containing 

 nothing worthy of observation, excepting the parish j 

 church, which is a venerable cruciform structure ; ! 

 but on the south side of it, as well as on the west- \ 

 ern, or opposite bank of the river, many handsome 

 houses have lately been erected, upon a more 

 uniform plan, with a new church, a town-house, 

 an infirmary, markets, &c., and for the greater con- 

 venience of the trade of Caithness and the Orkneys, 

 a branch of the bank of Scotland has been estab- 

 lished here. This is a port of the eustom-house, 

 with a resident collector, comptroller, and inferior 

 officers ; the collector and supervisor of excise, and 

 the distributor of stamps for the shire, also reside 

 here. The chief exports are corn, meal, salmon, 

 and white fish ; and the imports consist of most of J 

 the necessaries of life, including coal for the con- 

 sumption of the more opulent. Coarse linen is the 

 principal manufacture of the place, and there are 

 bleaching-grounds and a tannery in the vicinity. 

 The parish of Thurso, which is bounded on the 

 north by the Pentland Frith, extends around the 

 town to the distance of about three miles, and con- 

 tains about 4000 acres of arable land, which, for j 

 the most part is level, exhibiting a rich succession 

 of well cultivated fields, interspersed with pretty 

 villas ; and near the town is Thurso castle, formerly 

 the seat of the earls of Caithness, but more recently 

 the family residence of Sir John Sinclair. Popula- 

 tion of town and parish in 1831, 4,679. 



THUSNELDA; wife of Arminius. (q. v.) 

 THYADES ; the same as Mcenades. (q. v.) 

 THYESTES ; in fabulous history, son of Pelops 

 and Hippodamia. Having seduced the wife of his 

 brother Atreus, the latter, in revenge, served up to 

 him the body of his own son at a feast. Thyestes, 

 discovering the fact, fled to Sicyon with his daughter 

 Pelopia, by whom he had a son, .ZEgisthus. An 

 oracle had declared that the son and grandson of 

 Thyestes should revenge the crime of Atreus ; and 

 when yEgisthus was grown up, he accordingly mur- 

 dered his uncle, at the instigation of his father. 

 Thyestes then ascended the vacant throne, but 

 was afterwards expelled by Agamemnon and Mene- 

 laus, the sons of Atreus, and died in banishment on 

 the island of Cythera. The tragedies of Sophocles 

 and Euripides, on this subject, are lost ; that of 

 Seneca is yet extant. 



THYME (thymus vulgaris); a small labiate 

 plant, a native of the south of Europe, and fre- 

 quently cultivated in gardens. The stems are 

 branching, eight inches or a foot in height ; the 

 leaves simple and opposite ; and the flowers dis- 

 posed in whorls near the summits of the branches. 

 All parts of the plant have a strong and penetrating 

 odour, as is usual in this family. Its essential oil 

 is extremely acrid and pungent, and is used for 

 culinary purposes, but less so now than before the 

 Oriental spices were common. Bees are very fond 

 of this, as well as of other labiate plants, and the 

 honey obtained is of superior quality. The thyme 

 of mount Hymettus is celebrated. 



THYRSUS (Greek Suits'); one of the most 

 ancient and common attributes of Bacchus and his 

 followers. It consisted of a lance, the iron part of 

 which was hidden in a cone of pine, in memory of 

 the stratagem which the followers of Bacchus em- 

 ployed against the Indians, when they went to 

 combat them with pikes, the iron of which was 

 concealed by ivy leaves. It was used at all the 

 festivals held in honour of the god of wine, and 



often enveloped with wreaths of ivy or bay, or 

 with little fillets of other kinds. See Bacchus. 



TIARA ; originally, and with Herodotus, the 

 cap of the Persian kings. The tiara of the pope is 

 a high cap, surrounded by three crowns rising one 

 above the other. These crowns are covered with 

 precious stones, and ornamented with an orb, on 

 which stands a cross, and on two sides of it a chain 

 of precious stones. Originally, the popes wore a 

 common bishop's mitre. (See Infula.*) It has 

 been said, but not proved, that Clovis, the Prankish 

 king, in the fifth century, or Constantino the Great, 

 in the beginning of the third century, presented the 

 pope with a gold crown, which the latter united 

 with the infula. According to Henke (Ecclesiasti- 

 cal History, in German, vol. ii.), the popes first 

 wore the simple crown in the ninth century ; Ci- 

 cognara (Storia della Scultura, &c.), however, is 

 of opinion, that only Alexander III., in the twelfth 

 century, surrounded the mitre with a crown, as a 

 sign of sovereignty. Boniface VIII. (who died in 

 1303) is said to have added the second, as a sign of 

 power over spiritual and temporal things, and Urban 

 V. (who died in 1370) the third, in order, as is be- 

 lieved, to indicate the power of the pope in the 

 church, suffering, militant and triumphant (or in 

 hell, on earth and in heaven.) Perhaps the three 

 crowns were to indicate the three parts of the globe 

 at that time known. At the consecration or coro- 

 nation of the pope, the following words are pro- 

 nounced : 4ccipe tiaram tribus coronis ornatam, et 

 scias te esse pattern, principem ac regem, rectorem 

 orbis in terra, vicarium Salvatoris nostri Jesu 

 Christi. As the mitre is placed over the coat of 

 arms of bishops, and the cardinal's hat over that of 

 the cardinal's, so the tiara, with the two keys, is 

 placed over the family coat of arms of the pope. 

 On coins, &c., the tiara and two keys are often 

 found alone. 



TIBER ; a river in Italy, which rises in the 

 Apennine mountains, and, in its course of about 

 160 miles, receives several small livers, as the 

 Teverone, the Chiana, Puglia, Nera, &c., runs 

 through Rome, and empties, at Ostia, into the 

 Tuscan sea. It owes its fame to the Roman poets. 

 In itself it is insignificant, and always muddy. The 

 fishes in it are not healthy, and are bad tasted. It 

 is navigable only for small craft. Its water is yel- 

 low and thick. It has been long believed that this 

 river contains many antiquities an opinion founded 

 on its frequent inundations in former times ; nay, 

 it has been even said, that Gregory the Great, in 

 his religious zeal, ordered the statues and monu- 

 ments of heathen antiquity to be thrown into the 

 Tiber. Fea, in his work Novelle del Tevere (Rome, 

 1819), maintains, on the contrary, that little would 

 be gained by exploring the mud of the river ; and 

 the most recent undertaking of this kind (see Ex- 

 cavations) confirms his opinion. That part of Rome 

 which is situated to the west of the Tiber, or on 

 its left bank, is called Trastevcre, and contains the 

 Vatican, with several other important buildings. 

 The inhabitants of this quarter are distinguished 

 by many peculiarities from the other Romans, and 

 are called Trasteverini. (See Rome.} An insigni- 

 ficant creek in Washington, U. S. has been dignified 

 with the name of Tiber. 



TIBERIAS. See Gencsareth. 



TIBERIUS, CLAUDIUS NERO, a Roman emperor, 

 born B. C. 42, was the son of a father of the same 

 name, of the ancient Claudian family, and of Livia 

 Drusilla, the wife of Augustus. Rapidly raised to 



