G22 



TIMOROSOT1X. 



the time of Antigonus, king of Macedonia, and 

 Ptolemy Pttbdelpbos, during the last half of the 

 third re'utury H. ('. He attacked the dogmatists, 

 and maintained a suspension of judgment as alone 

 productive of tranquillity of mind. Thirty come- 

 dies and sixty tragedies are also ascribed to him ; 

 but of his numerous works nothing remains, except 

 a few fragments of his silli, the loss of which is 

 much to be regretted. They consisted of three 

 l>ooks, the first of which was narrative, and the 

 others in the form of dialogues. They were writ- 

 ten in ridicule of the dogmatic philosophy. The 

 fragments of Timon are contained in Langheinrich's 

 De Timone Sillographo (1720), and Paul's treatise 

 De Sillis Gracorum (Berlin, 1821). The ancients 

 celehrate his industry, learning, and philosophical 

 indifference to objects which excite the wonder, 

 anxiety, grief and terror of the multitude. 



TIMOROSO (Italian for fearful) ; a term ap- 

 plied 'to music, if the style of performance expresses 

 awe and dread. 



TIMOTHEUS, one of the most celebrated lyric 

 poets and musicians of antiquity, who flourished at 

 the court of Philip of Macedon, and his son Alex- 

 ander, about the middle of the fourth century before 

 the Christian era. He was a native of Miletus in 

 Caria; and Pausanias attributes to him the com- 

 pletion of the lyre, by the addition of four new 

 strings. 



TIMOTHY, a disciple of St Paul, was born in j 

 Lycaonia, Asia Minor, probably at Lystra, of a 

 pagan father and Christian mother. He was yet 

 young when he became associated (A. D. 51) with 

 the great apostle in his ministry to the Gentiles ; 

 and he accompanied Paul to Thessalonica, Philippi, 

 and Beraea. He was then left in the latter city 

 alone ; and, after spending some time there and at 

 Thessalonica, during a violent persecution, he again 

 joined his master at Corinth. After preaching the 

 gospel in Macedonia, Achaia, and other places, be 

 is supposed to have shared the captivity of Paul at 

 Rome, and to have suffered martyrdom there during 

 the reign of Nerva (A. D. 97). Two letters ad- 

 dressed to him by St Paul form a part of the New 

 Testament. 



TIMOTHY GRASS (phleumpratense) is readily 

 recognised by its long cylindrical spikes. It forms 

 very excellent fodder, and horses prefer it to the 

 other grasses ; but it does not yield a very abundant 

 crop. The root becomes bulbous in very dry 

 grounds. It is a native of Europe. 



TIMOUR, called also TIMOUR LENK (that 

 is, the lame), and, by corruption, TAMERLANE, 

 one of the most celebrated of the Oriental con- 

 querors, was born in the village of Sebzar, in the 

 territory of Kesh, about forty miles from Samarcand, 

 in the year 1335. His ancestors were chiefs of the 

 districts, and remotely related to the family of 

 Gengis. At the time of his birth, great anarchy 

 prevailed in his native country, which suffered from 

 an invasion of the Getes, against whom be acted, 

 'at the head of a body of his countrymen, and en- 

 dured much diversity of fortune, until at length, 

 being joined by a large body of volunteers, he was 

 enabled to expel the Getes from Transoxiana. A 

 dispute with bis confederate and brother-in-law, 

 Houssein, led to a brief civil war; but the latter 

 being defeated and put to death, a general diet, in 

 1370, seated him on the throne of Zagatai, upon 

 which he made Samarcand the seat of his empire. 

 His elevation, so far from satisfying his ambition, 

 only opened further prospects to it ; and, in a very 



few years, he reunited fo Xugatai its former depen- 

 dencies, Candahar and Carizme, overrun Persia, 

 passed as a conqueror through the whole course of 

 the Tigris and Euphrates, reduced the Christians of 

 Georgia, subdued the kingdom of Cashgar, and his 

 emirs even crossed the river Irtish into Siberia. 

 He also despatched an army into Western Tartan , 

 under a fugitive prince named Toctamish, whii, 

 having established himself by its means, turned hi* 

 arms against his benefactor, and obliged Timonr to 

 contend for his capital and empire. He was, how- 

 ever, finally defeated, and, in the pursuit, Timour 

 cap! u red a duke of Russia. In 1390, he invaded 

 Hindoostan, and, rapidly penetrating to Delhi, soon 

 completed the subjugation of the country. While 

 on the banks of the Ganges, he was informed of 

 great disturbances on the confines of Georgia and 

 Anatolia, and of the ambitious projects of the Tur- 

 kish sultan, Bajazet. He soon made arrangements 

 to encounter this new enemy, whom, after a war of 

 the most barbarous ferocity, which lasted two years 

 and upwards, he encountered and conquered, and 

 made captive, in the decisive battle of Angora, 

 fought in 1402. Concerning the treatment of his 

 prisoner, different accounts are given, the most 

 common of which states that he was carried about 

 by the conqueror in an iron cage, against the bars 

 of which, he, in a few months, beat out his brains, 

 in rage and despair. The conquests of the Tartar 

 now extended from the Irtish and Volga to the 

 Persian gulf, and from the Ganges to the Archipe- 

 lago ; and the want of shipping alone prevented 

 him from crossing into Europe. His inordinate 

 ambition was not yet satisfied, and he was making 

 mighty preparations for an invasion of China, when 

 death arrested his progress, at his camp at Otrar; 

 and he expired in 1405, in the seventieth year of 

 his age, having previously declared bis grandson, 

 Mahomet Jehan Ghiz, his successor. He left fifty- 

 three descendants, and a name much revered in the 

 East, where his posterity, until lately, still preserved 

 the title of the Mogul emperors, although the do- 

 minion had passed into other hands. Timour was 

 tall and corpulent, with a wide forehead, large head, 

 and pleasing countenance ; but he was maimed in 

 one hand, and lame on the right side. He conducted 

 his government alone, and without favourites, but 

 was, in the highest degree, fierce and fanatical in 

 his religion ; and, although no conquests were ever 

 attended with greater cruelty, devastation, and 

 waste of human life, be affected the title of a bene- 

 factor to mankind. Happily, his ambition was too 

 gigantic for its consequences to last, and his domin- 

 ions rapidly became divided as before. Yet he was 

 not a mere barbarian conqueror, if the institutes are 

 to be regarded as genuine, which, under the title of 

 the Institutions of Timour, have been made known 

 to us by a version from the Persian, executed by 

 major Davy and professor White (Oxford, 1783). 

 See Gibbon's Decline and Fall, ch. 65. 



TIN was known to the ancients in the most re- 

 mote ages. The Phoenicians procured it from 

 Spain and from Britain, with which nations they 

 carried on a very lucrative commerce. It appears 

 to have been in common use in the time of Moses. 

 It is rather a scarce metal, occurring in the earth 

 in but two forms, namely, that of the peroxide, 

 usually contaminated with the oxides of iron and 

 manganese, and of a double sulphuret of tin and 

 copper, the last of which, however, is an exceedingly 

 rare mineral. (For a description of these ores, see 

 the end of the present article.) Cornwall has been 



