Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/1025

TETRICUS book of Topica, which he wrote to explain to him this book of Aristotle. The lawyer had turned it over in Cicero's library at Tusculum, but he found that it was too difficult for him {Topica^ c. 1, arf Fam. vii. 19), and he asked Cicero for an explana- tion. Trebatius enjoyed considerable reputation under Augustus as a lawyer, and he was one of those whom Augustus consulted as to the giving a legal effect to codicilli. Trebatius advised that these informal testamentary dispositions should be allowed to have legal effect : he said " that it was very useful and necessary for the Roman citizens that this should be so, on account of the long journeys which people often took, during which, if a man could not make his testament, he might yet make codicilli" (InsL 2, tit. 25, De Codicillis). Ho- race addressed to Trebatius the first Satire of the Second Book. Trebatius was the master of Labeo, who, however, often differs from him in opinion (Dig. 16. tit. 3. s. 1. § 41 ; 1 8. tit. 6. s. 1 . § 2), In the passage last referred to, the opinion of Labeo is decidedly right, and that of Trebatius as clearly wrong. He wrote some books (Ubri) De jure Civili, and nine books De Religionibus (Porphyrius, ad Horat. Sat. ii. 1) ; but Macrobius {Sat. iii. 3) quotes the tenth book Re- ligionum. Trebatius is often cited in the Digest, but there is no direct excerpt from his writings. Pomponius speaks of several works of Trebatius being extant in his time, but he adds that his writings were not in great repute. His gram- matical knowledge of his own language was ridi- culously defective, for he said that Sacellum was composed of two words, sacrum and cdla^ a blunder which Gellius corrects (vi. 6). The letters of Cicero to Trebatius are con- tained among those ad Familiares (vii. 6 — 22). (Grotius, Vita^ Jurisconsult. ; Zimmern, Gcschichfe dcs R'6m. Frivatrcchis, i. p. 297.) [G. L.] TETHYS (Ttj^i^s), a daughter of Uranus and Gaea, and wife of Oceanus, by whom she was con- ceived to be the mother of the Oceanides and the numerous river-gods. She also educated Hera, who was brought to her by Rhea. (Hes. Theog. 136, 337 ; Apollod. i. 1. § 3 ; Plat. Tim. p. 40 ; Ov. Fast. v. 81 ; Virg. Gcorg. i. 31.) [L. S.] TETRICUS, C. PESU'VIUS, one of the thirty tyrants enumerated by Trebellius PoUio [AuREOLUs], was the last of the pretenders who ruled Gaul during its temporary separation from the empire under Gallienus and his successor. He was of noble descent, a senator, a consular, and praefect of Aquitania at the period when, after the death of Postumus, of Laelianus, of Victorinus, and of Marius, in rapid succession, the supreme power devolved on the popular Victoria, who, feeling unable or unwilling to undertake a task so onerous and so fraught with danger, persuaded the soldiers to accept of her kinsman Tetricus as their ruler, and he was accordingly invested with the })urple at Bordeaux, in A. D. 267. Claudius Gothi- cus found his attention and resources so fully occu- pied by the wild tribes on the Danube and the coasts of the Euxine, that he considered it impo- litic to commence hostilities against a chief who maintained tranquillity and order throughout the limits of France and Spain, and kept at bay the barbarians on the Rhenish frontier ; indeed, we may conclude from medals, that he not merely tolerated, but acknowledged the authority of his rival. Upon the accession of Aurclian, however, TETRICUS. 1 01 3 Tetricus, if we can believe the concurring testimony of Pollio, Victor, and Eutropius, harassed and alarmed by the insolence and factious spirit of his troops, privately invited the new sovereign to re- lieve him from a load which he found intolerable and betrayed his army to defeat at the great battle of Chalons. [Aurelianus.] It is certain that although Tetricus, along with his son, in the guise of captives, graced the triumph of the conqueror, he was immediately afterwards treated with the greatest distinction, appointed corrector of the whole of Italy, and even addressed by Aurelian as comrade, colleague, and imperator. Retiring sub- sequently into private life, he died at a very ad- vanced age. (Every circumstance connected with the history of Tetricus has been collected and arranged, with great industry and learning, by De Boze, in a dis- sertation contained in the Memoires de VAcademie de Sciences et Belles Lettres., vol. xxvi. p. 504 ; see Trebell. Poll. Trig. Tyrann, xxiii. ; Aurel. Vict, de Caes. XXXV., Epit. xxxv. ; Eutrop. ix. 9 ; Zonar. xii. 27.) [W. R.] COIN OF TETRICUS SENIOR. TETRICUS, C. PESU'VIUS PIVE'SUS, twenty-fourth on the list of Pollio, son of the pre- ceding, although a child at the time of his father's elevation, was forthwith proclaimed Caesar. Whe - ther he subsequently received the title of Augustus is a matter of doubt, since the evidence afforded by medals, our surest guide in such matters, is in the present instance indistinct and contradictory. He shared the favour displayed towards his father by Aurelian, was treated with distinction by the princes who followed, and passed with credit through all the grades of Senatorian rank, trans- mitting his patrimony, undiminished, to his heirs. The house of the Tetrici, on the Caelian hill, was still in existence when Pollio wrote, and contained a picture in which Aurelian was represented in the act of investing the father and son with senatorial robes, receiving from them, in return, a sceptre and civic crown. We have given, above, the names of these two personages as exhibited by Eckhel. The family designation Pesuvius or Pesubius seems established, beyond a question, by coins and inscriptions, but we cannot so readily admit Fivcsus, which Eckhel supposes to have been derived by the son from a mother Pivesa. In the first place, Pesuvius and coin of tetricus junior. 3t 3