Tamasea, a beautiful plain of Cyprus, sacred to the goddess of beauty. It was in this place that Venus gathered the golden apples with which Hippomanes was enabled to overtake Atalanta. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 10, li. 644.—Pliny, bk. 5.—Strabo, bk. 14.
Tamesis, a river of Britain, now the Thames. Cæsar, Gallic War, bk. 5, ch. 11.
Tamos, a native of Memphis, made governor of Ionia, by young Cyrus. After the death of Cyrus, Tamos fled into Egypt, where he was murdered on account of his immense treasures. Diodorus, bk. 14.——A promontory of India in the Ganges.
Tampius, a Roman historian.
Tamyras, a river of Phœnicia, between Tyre and Sidon.
Tamyris, a queen. See: [Thomyris].
Tanăgra, a town of Bœotia, near the Euripus, between the Asopus and Thermodon, famous for fighting-cocks. It was founded by Pœmandros, a son of Chæresilaus the son of Jasius, who married Tanagra the daughter of Æolus, or, according to some, of the Asopus. Corinna was a native of Tanagra. Strabo, bk. 9.—Pausanias, bk. 9, chs. 20 & 23.—Ælian, Varia Historia, bk. 13, li. 25.
Tanăgrus, or Tanāger, now Negro, a river of Lucania in Italy, remarkable for its cascades, and the beautiful meanders of its streams, through a fine picturesque country. Virgil, Georgics, bk. 3, li. 151.
Tanais, a eunuch, freedman to Mæcenas. Horace, bk. 1, satire 1, li. 105.——A river of Scythia, now the Don, which divides Europe from Asia, and falls into the Palus Mæotis after a rapid course, and after it has received the additional streams of many small rivulets. A town at its mouth bore the same name. Mela, bk. 1, ch. 19.—Strabo, bks. 11 & 16.—Curtius, bk. 6, ch. 2.—Lucan, bks. 3, 8, &c.——A deity among the Persians and Armenians, who patronized slaves; supposed to be the same as Venus. The daughters of the noblest of the Persians and Armenians prostituted themselves in honour of this deity, and were received with greater regard and affection by their suitors. Artaxerxes the son of Darius was the first who raised statues to Tanais in the different provinces of his empire, and taught his subjects to pay her divine honours. Curtius, bk. 5, ch. 1.—Strabo, bk. 11.
Tanăquil, called also Caia Cæcilia, was the wife of Tarquin the fifth king of Rome. She was a native of Tarquinia, where she married Lucumon, better known by the name of Tarquin, which he assumed after he had come to Rome at the representation of his wife, whose knowledge of augury promised him something uncommon. Her expectations were not frustrated; her husband was raised to the throne, and she shared with him the honours of royalty. After the murder of Tarquin, Tanaquil raised her son-in-law Servius Tullius to the throne, and ensured him the succession. She distinguished herself by her liberality; and the Romans in succeeding ages had such a veneration for her character, that the embroidery she had made, her girdle, as also the robe of her son-in-law, which she had worked with her own hands, were preserved with the greatest sanctity. Juvenal bestows the appellation of Tanaquil on all such women as were imperious, and had the command of their husbands. Livy, bk. 1, ch. 34, &c.—Dionysius of Halicarnassus, bk. 3, ch. 59.—Florus, bk. 1, chs. 5 & 8.—Silius Italicus, bk. 13, li. 818.