Tannenberg (East Prussia). Here Ladislaus V., Jagellon of Poland, defeated the Teutonic Knights with great slaughter, the grand master being among the slain, July 15, 1410. The order never recovered from this calamity.
Tap. A gentle blow on the drum.
Taps. A sound of drum or trumpet which takes place usually about a quarter of an hour after tattoo, and is an indication that all lights in the soldiers’ quarters will be extinguished, and the men retire to bed.
Tapuri. A powerful people, apparently of Scythian origin, who dwelt in Media, on the borders of Parthia, south of Mount Coronus. They also extended into Margiana, and probably farther north on the eastern side of the Caspian, where their original abodes seem to have been in the mountains called by their name.
Tara. A hill in Meath, Ireland, where it is said a conference was held between the English and Irish in 1173. Near here, on May 26, 1798, the royalist troops, 400 in number, defeated the insurgent Irish 4000 strong.
Taranto (anc. Tarentum). A town of Southern Italy, province of Terra d’Otranto, is situated on a rocky islet formerly an isthmus between the Mare Piccolo (Little Sea), and the Mare Grande (Great Sea), or Gulf of Taranto, on the west. Ancient Tarentum was a far more splendid city than its modern representative. Its greatness dates from 708 B.C., when the original inhabitants were expelled, and the town was taken possession of by a strong body of Lacedæmonian Partheniæ under the guidance of Phalanthus. It soon became the most powerful city in the whole of Magna Græcia, and exercised a kind of supremacy over the other Greek cities in Italy. It possessed a considerable fleet of ships of war, and was able to bring into the field, with the assistance of its allies, an army of 30,000 foot and 3000 horse. The people of Tarentum, assisted by Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, supported a war which had been undertaken in 281 B.C. by the Romans, to avenge the insults the Tarentines had offered to their ships when near their harbors; it was terminated after ten years; 300,000 prisoners were taken, and Tarentum became subject to Rome. Except the citadel, Tarentum was captured by the Carthaginians, 212, but recovered by Fabius, 209 B.C. Tarentum has shared in the revolutions of Southern Italy.
Tarazona. A town of Spain, in the province of Zaragoza, on the Queyles, a tributary of the Ebro. It is the ancient Turiaso, and here a few Roman troops routed a Celtiberian army. It became a municipium under the Romans.
Tarbes. A town of France, in the department of Hautes Pyrenees, on the left bank of the Adour. For a long time it belonged to the English monarchs, and it was the residence of the Black Prince. On March 20, 1814, a combat took place here between the British under Wellington and the French under Soult, in which the former gained the victory.
Tar-bucket. See [Implements].
Tard-venus, or Malandrins (Fr.). Freebooters, banditti, who elected their own chief, and appeared first in France in 1360.