[Trajan, Marcus Ulpius], Roman emperor, born in Spain; his great deeds in arms won him a consulship in 91, and in 97 Nerva invited him to be his colleague and successor; a year later he became sole emperor, ruled the empire with wisdom and vigour, set right the finances, upheld an impartial justice, and set on foot various schemes of improvement; suppressed the Christians as politically dangerous, but with no fanatic extravagance; remained above all a warrior and true leader of the legions, and crowned his military fame by his successful conquest of Dacia, in commemoration of which he is said to have erected the famous Trajan Column, which still stands in Rome (56-117).
[Trajan's Column], a column erected by Trajan in the Forum at Rome in memory of his victory over the Dacians, and sculptured with the story of his exploits, is 125 ft. in height, and ascended by 185 steps; was surmounted by a statue of Trajan, for which Pope Sextus V. substituted one of St. Peter.
[Transcaucasia], an extensive tract of Russian territory stretching E. and W. between the Caucasus (N.) and Turkey in Asia and Persia (S.). See [Caucasia].
[Transcendentalism], name now principally employed to denote the great doctrine of Kant and his school, that there are principles of a priori derivation, that is, antecedent to experience, that are regulative and constitutive of not only our thoughts but our very perceptions, and the operation of which is antecedent to and sovereign over all our mental processes; which principles are denominated the categories of thought; the name is also employed to characterise every system which grounds itself on a belief in a supernatural of which the natural is but the embodiment and manifestation. See [Natural Supernaturalism].
[Transmigration], the doctrine prevalent in the East, that the soul is immortal, and that when it leaves the body at death it passes into another, a transition which in certain systems goes under the name of reincarnation.
[Transubstantiation], the doctrine of Roman Catholics as defined by the Council of Trent, that the bread and wine of the Eucharist is, after consecration by a priest, converted mystically into the body and blood of Christ, and is known as the docrine of the Real Presence.
[Transvaal], formerly South African Republic (1350), a country of SE. Africa, stretching northwards from the Vaal River, and bounded N. by Matabeleland, E. by Portuguese E. Africa and Swaziland, S. by Natal and the Orange River Colony, and W. by Bechuanaland and Bechuanaland Protectorate; comprises elevated plateaux, but is mountainous in the E.; about the size of Italy; has a good soil and climate favourable for agriculture and stock-raising, to which latter the inert Dutch farmer chiefly devotes himself; its chief wealth, however, lies in its extremely rich deposits of gold, especially those of the "Rand," of which it exports now more than any country in the world; its advance since the gold discoveries has been great, but the trade is almost entirely in the hands of the British immigrants; [Johannesburg] (q. v.) is the largest town, and Pretoria (15) the seat of Government. In 1856 the region was settled by Dutch farmers, who had "trekked" from Natal (recently annexed by Britain) to escape British Rule, as in 1835, for a similar reason, they had come from the Cape to Natal. Fierce encounters took place with the native Basutos, but in the end the "Boers" made good their possession. In 1877 the Republic, then in a disorganised and impoverished condition, and threatened with extinction by the natives, came under the care of the British, by whom the natives were reduced and the finances restored. In 1880 a rising of the Boers to regain complete independence resulted in the Conventions of 1881 and 1884, by which the independence of the Republic was recognised, but subject to the right of Britain to control the foreign relations. Within recent years agitations were carried on by the growing "Uitlander" population to obtain a share in the government to which they contributed in taxes the greater part of the revenue, and a succession of attempts were made by the British Government to get the Boers to concede the franchise to the "Uitlanders" and remedy other grievances; but the negotiations connected therewith were suddenly arrested by an ultimatum of date 9th October 1899, presented to the British Government by the Transvaal, and allowing them only 48 hours to accept it. It was an ultimatum they were bound to ignore, and accordingly, the time having expired on the 11th, war was declared by the Boers. It proved a costly and sanguinary one to both sides in the conflict; but the resistance of the Boers was ultimately overcome, and hostilities ceased in May 1902. Previously to this, the Colony had been annexed by Great Britain (1900). It is at present (1905) administered by a Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, and an Executive Council; but it is proposed that, in the near future, representative institutions should be granted.
[Transylvania] (2247), eastern division of the Austrian Empire; is a tableland enclosed NE. and South by the Carpathians, contains wide tracts of forests, and is one-half under tillage or in pasture; yields large crops of grain and a variety of fruits, and has mines of gold, silver, copper, iron, &c., though the manufactures and trade are insignificant; the population consists of Roumanians, Hungarians, and Germans; it was united to Hungary in 1868.
[Trapani] (32), an ancient seaport of Sicily, known in Roman times as Drepanum, in the NW., 40 m. W. of Palermo; presents now a handsome modern appearance, and trades in wheat, wine, olives, &c.
[Trappists], an order of Cistercian monks founded in 1140 at La Trappe, in the French department of Orne, noted for the severity of their discipline, their worship of silence and devotion to work, meditation, and prayer, 12 hours out of the 24 of which they pass in the latter exercise; their motto is "Memento Mori"; their food is chiefly vegetables.