Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 09.djvu/303

TARQUINIUS 259 TARSUS tinued the great works of his father, and advanced the power of Rome abroad both by wars and alliances. By the marriage of his daughter with Octavius Mamilius of Tusculum, the most powerful of the Latin chiefs, and other political mea- sures, he caused himself to be recognized as the head of the Latin confederacy. After a reign of nearly 25 years a conspiracy broke out by which he and his family were exiled from Rome (510 B. c), an infamous action of his son Sextus being part of the cause of the outbreak (see Lucretia). He tried re- peatedly, without success, to regain his power, and at length died in Cumae in 495 B. C. TAER, RALPH STOCKMAN, an American scientist; bom in Gloucester, Mass., Jan. 15, 1864; was graduated at the Lawrence Scientific School, Harvard University, in 1891. He was an assistant on the United States Fish Commission and in the Smithsonian Institution in 1882-1883, and assistant in the United States Geological Survey in 1888-1891; assistant Professor of Geology at Cornell University in 1892-1897; and in the lat- ter year became Professor of Dynamic Geology which position he held until his death in 1912. His publications include: "Economic Geology of the United States" (1893); "Elementary Physical Geography" (1895); "Elementary Geol- ogy" (1897); "First Book of Physical Geography" (1897); "Physical Geogra- phy of New York" (1902); "Geography of Science" (1902); "Alaskan Glacier Studies" (1914); "College Physiogra- phy" (1914). TARRAGONA, a seaport in Spain; capital of a province of the same name; on the Francoli, at its mouth in the Mediterranean on a limestone rock. The chief building is the large cathedral, a fine Gothic building partly of the 11th century. The town was founded by the Phoenicians, and became of great im- portance under the Romans. In its en- virons are an ancient amphitheater, a circus, an aqueduct, etc. It was taken and sacked by the French under Suchet in 1811. It has a trade in corn, oil, wine, fruit, etc. Pop. about 24,500. TAR RIVER, a river in North Caro- lina, which rises in Granville co., flows S. E., and enters Pamlico Sound by a wide estuary. The lower part of it is called Pamlico river. It is about 200 miles long. TARRYTOWN, a village in West- chester CO., N. Y.; on the Hudson river, and on the New York and Hudson river railroad; 27 miles N. of New York. Its precincts include Sleepy Hollow. The Hudson here has an expansion called Tappan Zee, and the village is built on rising ground, commanding an extensive view. It contains a Revolutionary Sol- diers' Monument and other objects of in- terest, Irving Institute, a number of libraries, a National bank, and weekly newspapers. It has manufactories of plumbers' tools, tile, automobiles, and shoes. It is celebrated as the place where Major Andre was captured, and also as the place where the remains of Washington Irving were interred. Pop. (1910) 5,600; (1920) 5,807. TARSHISH. a place frequentljr men- tioned in the Old Testament. It is now generally identified by Biblical critics with the Tartessus of the Greek and Roman writers, a district of Southern Spain, near the mouth of the Guadal- quivir, settled by the Phoenicians. TARSUS, the ancient capital of Cilicia, and one of the most important cities in Asia Minor; on the Cydnua river; 12 miles from the sea in the midst of a pro- ductive plain. It was a great emporium for the traffic carried on between Syria, Egypt, and the central region of Asia Minor. In the time of the Romans two great roads led from Tarsus, one N. across the Taurus by the "Cilician Gates," and the other E. to Antioch by the "Amanian" and "Syrian Gates," Tarsus, which was sacred to Baal Tars, and is thought by some to have been founded by Sennacherib, 690 B. C, was probably of Assyrian origin, but the first historical mention of it occurs in the "Anabasis" of Xenophon, where it figures as a wealthy and populous city, ruled by a prince tributary to Persia. In the time of Alexander the Great it was governed by a Persian satrap; it next passed un- der the dominion of Seleucidse, and finally became the capital of the Roman province of Cilicia (66 B. c). At Tarsus Antony received Cleopatra, when as Aphrodite she sailed up the Cydnus, with magnifi- cent luxury. Under the early Roman emperors Tarsus was as renowned for its culture as for its commerce, Strabo plac- ing it, in respect to its zeal for learning, above even Athens and Alexandria. The natives were vain and luxurious; a Mos- lem general estimated their number at 100,000. Weaving goats' hair was the staple manufacture. It was the birth- place of the apostle Paul (q. v.), who received the greater part of his education here; the Stoic Antipater and the philos- opher Athenodorus were also natives, and here the Emperor Julian was buried. Gradually, during the confusions that ac- companied the decline of the Roman and Byzantine power, it came into the hands of the Turks, and fell into comparativo