Tier-shot. Grape-shot is sometimes so called.
Tiflis. See [Teflis].
Tige-arms. Sometimes called pillar breech-arms. Arms with a stem of steel, screwed into the middle of the breech-pin, around which the charge of powder is placed. The ball enters free and rests upon the top of the pin, which is tempered, and a few blows with a heavy ramrod force the ball to fill the grooves of the rifled arm. This invention was an improvement by Capt. Thouvenin on Delvignes’ plan of having a chamber for the powder smaller than the bore. Capt. Minié’s invention superseded the tige-arms, by means of a bullet which is forced to fill the grooves by the action of the charge itself at the instant of the explosion.
Tigranocerta (ruins at Sert). The later capital of Armenia, built by Tigranes. It was taken by Lucullus and the Romans, after a great victory over Tigranes, in 69 B.C.
Tigurini. A tribe of the Helvetii, who joined the Cimbri in invading the country of the Allobroges in Gaul, where they defeated the consul L. Cassius Longinus, 107 B.C. They formed in the time of Cæsar the most important of the four cantons into which the Helvetii were divided.
Tilsit. A town of East Prussia, on the left bank of the Niemen, or Memel, 60 miles northeast from Königsberg. Tilsit will be ever memorable in history for the treaties which were there signed between France and Russia on July 7, and France and Prussia on July 9, 1807. By the former of these Napoleon agreed to restore to the king of Prussia a great portion of his dominions, his Polish acquisitions being joined to Saxony, and his possessions west of the Elbe formed into the nucleus of the new kingdom of Westphalia; Danzig was declared an independent city; the Prussian province of Bialystock was ceded to Russia; the dukes of Oldenberg and Mecklenburg, the czar’s relatives, were reinstated by Napoleon, and in return the Bonapartist kings of Naples and Holland were recognized by the czar, etc. By the latter, the king of Prussia recognized the kings of Holland, Naples, and Westphalia, and the Confederation of the Rhine; agreed to the cessions laid down in the Russian treaty, and to other minor alienations and concessions to Saxony, amounting in all to nearly one-half of his dominions; to the exclusion from his harbors of the commerce of Great Britain, and to the occupation of the Prussian fortresses by the French, till the payment of an enormous ransom. The weighty importance of the alterations effected by this treaty is, however, dwarfed before the startling magnitude of the secret provisions signed between France and Russia. By these were arranged the resignation of the empire of the East to Russia, Roumelia and Constantinople being specially excepted by Napoleon, and the acquisition of the Spanish peninsula by France; the two powers were to make common cause against Great Britain, and were to force the three courts of Stockholm, Copenhagen, and Lisbon to join them; and Napoleon agreed to increase no further the power of the duchy of Warsaw, and to do nothing which might lead to the re-establishment of the Polish monarchy. By a further agreement, not put formally into writing, the mouths of the Cattaro, the Ionian Isles, Sicily, Malta, Egypt, and the papal dominions were to be taken by France; and Greece, Macedonia, Dalmatia, and the Adriatic coasts, as the portion of Turkey; while on the other hand, Russia was to obtain the rest of Turkey, and was allowed to seize Finland. These secret articles are given on most excellent authority, and their correctness is further vouched for by the conduct of France and Russia for the next few years.
Tilt. A thrust, or fight with rapiers; also, an old military game.
Tilted Steel. See [Ordnance, Metals for, Steel].
Tilter. One who fights or contests in a tournament.
Tilting-helmet. A helmet of large size often worn over another at tilts.