T A U 



TAURILIA, among tVie Romans, games in honour of 

 thf infernal gods. They were otherwife caUed ludt taunt. 



TAURINIA, in /Incieni Geography, a town ot Eu- 

 ropean Sarmatia, in the pcninfula called « Curfus Achillis. 



Steph. Byz. 



rKVK\S,mGfography. See TabRem. 



TAURISCI, in jincient Gngraphy, a Celtic people, who 

 were eftabUfhcd along the Danube. They jvere ieparated 

 from the Scordifci by a mountain caUed by PUny Mons 



Claudius. . ■ t 



TAURO, a town of European Sarmatia, in the penm- 

 fula of " Curfus Achillis." Suidas. 



TAUROBOLIUM, or Taurobolion, among the 

 Jncknls, facrificcs of bulls, which were offered to Cybele, 

 the mother of the gods, to render thar.ks to the goddels ot 

 the earth, for her teaching men the art to tame thofe ani- 

 fljals, and fit them for labour. . 



The Taurobolium was a kind of facrifice of expiation and 

 purification ; of which no trace occurs before the reign of 

 Antonine, and which feems to have terminated under Hono- 

 rius and Thcodofius the younger. It was principally em- 

 ployed in the confccration of the priefts of Cybele. 



TAVRO-C ASTRO, in Geography, a town of Greece, 

 in Livadia ; 20 miles N.N.E. of Athens. 



TAUROCINIUM, in Ancient Geography, a river of 

 Italy, in Magna Grjecia ; and the people who lived upon its 

 banks in the vicinity of the town of Rhegium, were called 



Taurocini. , r , 



TAUROCOLLA, Bull-Glue, a fort of glue much ufed 

 among the ancients in works that required Urength, being 

 accounted far ftronger than any other kind. It was made 

 by boiling down the ears and genital parts of a bull in water. 

 TAUROENTUM, in Ancient Geography, a colony 

 founded by the ancient Marfeilloife on the fea-fliore, to the 

 right of the entrance into the bay of Ciotat. 



TAUROGEN, in Geography, a town of S?.mogitia ; 30 

 miles S.W. of Rofienne. 



TAUROMENIUM, in Ancient Geography, a town of 

 Sicily. See Taor.mina. 



TAUROPOLIA, in Antiquity, feafls celebrated in 

 honour of Diana and Apollo, in the Icarian ifles, inz. thofe 

 of the Archipelago and of the Jigean fea. 



TAUROPOLIAN, in Ancient Geography, the name of 

 a temple fituated in the ifle of Samos ; dedicated to Artemis, 

 or Diana. — Alfo, a temple dedicated to Diana, in the ifle 

 of Icaria. Strabo. 



TAUROPOLIS, a town of Afia Minor, in Caria. 

 TAURUS, in AJlronomy, the Bull, one of the twelve 

 figns of the zodiac, and the fecond in order. 



The ftars in the conftellation Taurus, in Ptolemy's cata- 

 logue are 44 ; in Tycho's catalogue, 43 ; in Hevelius's cata- 

 logue, 51 ; in the Britannic catalogue, 141. See Constel- 

 lation 



T A U 



name of one of the three canals by which the town of 

 Alexandria, in Egypt, communicates with the fea — Alfo, .i 

 place of Sicily, 60 ftadia from the town of Syracufe — 

 Alfo, a marth of Gallia Narbonnenfis. 



Taurus, in Geography, was a general name given by 

 the ancients to any thing of a gigantic nature, and hence it 

 has_been applied to a celebrated range of mountains, which 

 is (aid to extend from the Grecian Archipelago to the extre- 

 mities of Afia. By Strabo it is thouglit to originate in 

 Caria and Pamphylia ; and by fome modern geographers, on 

 the coaft of Cilicia, not far from Scarderoon. Howeve;- 

 this be, it interfefts Afia Minor from E. to W., and ad- 

 vancing in n N.E. direftion, intercepts the courfe of the 

 Euphrates, and fpreads itfelf over the kingdom of Arme- 

 nia, where it unites with mount Caucafus. It then detaches 

 a variety of branches into Perfia, of which the moft con- 

 fpicuous is that named Mont Zagros by the ancients. This 

 long and lofty range formerly divided Media from Affyria, 

 and now forms the boundary of the Perfian and Turkifh em- 

 pires. It runs parallel with the river Tigris and Perfiaj-; 

 gulf, and almoft difappearing in the vicinity of Gombroon, 

 feems once more to rife in the northern diftrifts of Kerman, 

 and following an eafte]-ly courfe through the centre ot 

 Meckraun and Balouchiftan, is entirely loft in the deferts of 

 Sinde. 



Taurus, in fome Ancient Cujloms, fignifies a huftjand. 

 Leg. H. I. cap. 7. " Videtur autem matris ejus, cujuf- 

 cunque taurus alluferit." 



Taurus, in Entomology, a fpecies of Scarabaus. — Alfo, a 

 fpecies of Cicada, found in Coromandel. — Alfo, a fpecies of 

 Cimex. 



Taurus, in Ornithology, a name given by the ancients to 

 the bittern or butter-bump, from its imitating the roaring of 

 a bull in its noife. 



Taurus, m Zoology. See Bos and Bull. 

 Taurus Mthiopicus, the Ethiopian Bull, an animal de- 

 fcribed in a very remarkable manner by Pliny ; but fo con- 

 trary to the courfe of nature, that we may very juftly rank 

 it among the other extraoidinary animals, fuch as the man- 

 tichora and the vermis cseruleus, of fixty or feventy feet 

 in length. 



TAUSA, in Geography, a town of Saxoay, in tlie cjrcle 

 of Neuftadt ; 2 miles N. of Ziegenbruck. 



TAUSCHELIN, a town of Bohemia, in the circle of 

 Schlan ; 10 miles W.N.W. of Schlan. 



TAUSCHIN, a town of Bohemia, in the circle of 

 Kaurzim ; 7 miles S.E. of Kofteletz. 



TAUSEN, John, in Biogreipky, called the " DanilTi 

 Luther," becaufe he was one of the firft promoters of the 

 reformation in Denmark, was born of parents who were 

 peafantsin the ifle of Fyen, in the year 1499. Having finifh- 

 edhis courfe of education, he became a monk in the conventof 

 the order of St. John of Jerufalem, at Antoorfkow, and here 



Taurus, in Ancient Geography, a name given by the an- he ingratiated himfelf fo much with the prior, that he ob' 



cients to a chain of mountains, which commenced in Afia 

 Minor, occupied the northern part of Cilicia, and proceeded 

 to join, towards the north of Syria, mount Amanus ; but 

 afterwards the name has comprehended the mountains which 

 reach from the Taurus of the ancients to the fouth of the 



Cafpian fea Alfo, the name of a promontory on the eaftern 



coaft of Sicily. Ptolemy. — Alfo, a mountain of Scythia. 

 It is a branch of mount Taurus that extends to the environs 

 of the Palus Msotidcs and the Cafpian fea. Jornandes. — 

 Alfo, a mountain of Germany, and a mountain of ^Ethiopia. 

 — Alfo, a place of Palcftine, at the entrance of the town of Je- 

 richo. — Alfo, a river of Greece, in the^Peloponnefus — Alfo, 

 a river of Afia, in the vicinity of Pamphyha.— Alfo, the 



tained a penfion for travelling into toreign countries, on 

 condition that he fhould avoid Wittenberg, which was at 

 that time the focus of herefy. In his progrefs he vifited 

 Louvain and Cologne, where he had an opportunity of pe- 

 rufing fome of the works of Luther, with which he was fo 

 captivated, that he could not refift the inclination of pro- 

 ceeding to Wittenberg, notwithftanding the prior's inter- 

 dift. In this place he pur*";ed his ftudies under the inftruc- 

 tion or Melanfthon with fuch fuccefs, that he was ap- 

 pointed to give public leftures on theology in the univerfity 

 of Copenhagen. In his convent, to which he was foon re- 

 called, he frequently preached ; and at length, -vix. in 1524, 

 publicly avowed lymfelf a difciple of Luther. The confe- 



quence 



