tages, Tarsus continued to flourish under the Roman emperors, until it fell into the hands of the Saracens. It was taken from them after a memorable siege by the emperor Nicephorus, but soon afterwards restored to them. In the time of Abulfeda, tliat is, towards the end of the 13th and beginning of the 14th century. Tar- sus was still large and surrounded by a double wall, and in the occupation of Armenian Christians {Tab. Syriw, p. 133). It still survives, though greatly reduced, un- der the modern name Tersus. Kinneir, who spent a week in Tarsus, states {Travels, p. 121) that hardlv a vestige of the former magnificence of Tarsus remains; nor does, perhaps, the modern town occupy one fourth part of the area of the ancient city. He observed a few ancient ruins, but not a single inscription or anv monument of beauty or art. The houses are intersect- ed by gardens and orchards ; they seldom exceed one story in height, are flat-roofed, and the greater part of them are constructed of hewn stone, to furnish which the more ancient edifices have been levelled with the ground. The inhabitants amount to about thirty thou- sand souls, mostly Turks and Turcomans. The adjoin- ing villages are chiefly inhabited by Greeks, who prefer agricultural pursuits to a town life. The sea is not visi- ble from the town. The Cydnus is there about fortvyards wide, and small canals are cut from it for irrigation.
See Heumann, Be Claris Tarsenensib. (Gott. 1748) ; Altmann, Exerc. de Tarso (Bern. 1731); Zeibich, Sn/i- l-UKTci A ntiq. Tarsens. (Vitel). 17G0) ; Mannert, ii, 97 sq. ; Rosenmiiller, Bihl. Geog. iii, 38; Beaufort, Karainauia, p. 275 ; Irby and Mangles, Travels, p. 502-506 ; Belley,
Coins of Tarsus
TARTAR
222
TASSCHEMACHER
in vol. xxvii of the Acadhnie des Tnscnpf.; Renncll, Geo(). of W'tfst. A sia, ii, 87 ; Cramer, A sin Minor, ii, 344 ; Leake, Asia Minor, p. "214; Barker, Lares and Penates, p. 31, 173, 187 ; Smith, iJict. oj' Class. Geoff, s, v. ; Lewin, iSt. Paid, i,7S sq.; Murray's Handbook /or Turkey in A sia, p. 370.
Tar'tak (Ileb. Tartak', pPI-iri; Sept. Bap^rtK-; Vulg. Thartkac), one of the gods of the Avite, or Av- vite, colonists who were planted in the cities of Sama- ria after the removal of the tribes by Shalmaneser (2 Kings xvii, 31). According to Rabbinical tradition, Tartak is said to have been worshipped under the form of an ass (Talm. Babyl. Sanhedrin, fol. 63 b). From this it has been conjectured that this idol was the Egyptian Typho ; but, though in the hieroglyphics the ass is the symbol of Typho, it was so far from being re- garded as an object of worship that it was considered absolutely unclean (Plutarch, Is. et Os. c. 14). A Per- sian or Pehlvi origin has been suggested for Tartak, according to which it signifies either •' intense darkness," or '• hero of darkness," or the underworld, and so, perhaps, some jilanet of ill-luck, as Saturn or Mars ((iesenius, Thesanr. s. v.; Ftirst, llandwb. s. v.). The Carmaiiians, a warlike race on the Persian Gulf, worshipped Mars alone of all the gods, and sacrificed an ass in his honor (Strabo, XV, 727). Perhaps some trace of this worship may have given rise to the Jewish tradition. — Smith.
Tar'tan (Ileb. Tartan', "|ln"!!n; Sept. QapSidv v. r. TavMav or Tapa^dv; Vulg. Tharthan),\\\\\c\\ occurs onl^' in 2 Kings xviii, 17 and Isa. xx, 1, has been gen- erally regarded as a proper name (Gesenius, Lex. Ileh. s. V.).. Winer assumes, on account of the identity of name, that the same person is intended in the two places {Realw. s. v.). Recent discoveries make it prob- able that in Tartan, as in Rabsaris and Rabshakeli, we have not a proper name at all, but a title or official des- ignation, like Pharaoh among the Egyptians, or Surena among the Parthians (Tacit. A nn. vi, 42). The Assyr- ian Tartan is a general, or commander-in-chief. It seems as if the Greek translator of 2 Kings had an ink- ling of the truth, and therefore prefixed the article to all three names, which he very rarely prefixes to the names of persons where they are first mentioned. If this be the true account of the term Tartan, we must understand in 2 Kings xviii, 17 that Sennacherib sent "a general," together with his "chief eunuch" and " chief cup-bearer," on an embassy to Hezekiah, and in Isa. XX, 1 that "a general" — probably a different per- son— was employed by Sargon against Ashdod, and suc- ceeded in taking the city. — Smith. See Tkibutk.
Tascodrugites (TaaKoSpoiyyirai, TarrKo^povyi- rai, from TanKo<;, a wooden nail or stake, and dpovyyoq, nose, in Epiphanius, Hceret. 48, n. 14), a heretical sect of Galatia (Hicron. Comm. in Ep. ad Gal.) belonging prob- ably to the 4th century, are by some included among the Gnostics of the school of Mark [see Maucus thk He- KESiAKCii], e. g. by Theodoret, Hceret. Fab. i, 9, 10, and by others among the Montanists, e. g. bj' Epiphanius, vt sup. The term is iniquestionably a nickname, ap- plied to these heretics because they were accustomed during prayer to place a finger to the nose or mouth like a pole, at the same time observing the profoundest silence. See Augustine, /-(e //reres. 63; Philastr. //(»?•<'«. 76; and Epiphanius. Theodoret says that they ridi- culed the sacraments, rejected the creeds, repudiated all revelation; and others charge on them a denial of the incarnation. Their assemblies were legally prohibited after the 4th century, but traces of them are seen in Theodore Studita in the 9tli. They are by some sup- posed to be identical with the Passalorynchites. — Her- zog, Real-Encykltip. s. v.