Thunderbolt of Italy (The), Gaston de Foix, nephew of Louis XII. (1489-1512).
Thunderbolt of War (The). Roland is so called in Spanish ballads.
Tisaphernês is so called in Tasso’s Jerusalem Delivered, xx. (1575).
Thunderer (The), the Times newspaper. This popular name was first given to the journal in allusion to a paragraph in one of the articles contributed by Captain Edward Sterling, while Thomas Barnes was editor.
We thundered forth the other day an article on the subject of social and political reform.
Some of the contemporaries caught up the expression, and called the Times “The Thunderer.” Captain Sterling used to sign himself “Vetus” before he was placed on the staff of the paper.
Thundering Legion (The), the twelfth legion of the Roman army under Marcus Aurēlius acting against the Quadi, A.D. 174. It was shut up in a defile, and reduced to great straits for want of water, when a body of Christians, enrolled in the legion, prayed for relief. Not only was rain sent, but the thunder and lightning so terrified the foe that a complete victory was obtained, and the legion was ever after called “The Thundering Legion.”--Dion Cassius, Roman History, lxxi. 8; Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, v. 5.
The Theban legion, i.e., the legion raised in the Thebaïs of Egypt, and composed of Christian soldiers led by St. Maurice, was likewise called “The Thundering Legion.”
The term “Thundering Legion” existed before either of these two was so called.
Thunstone (2 syl.), the successor of King Arthur, in whose reign Tom Thumb was killed by a spider.--Tom Thumb.