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tabella - (Latin) writing tablet.
taberna 
- (Latin) a booth, stall, or shop where goods and wares were sold by merchants and farmers and where money-leaders plied their trade; tabernae lined the north and south
sides of the Roman forum and were used by spectators of festivals,
fights, battles, and games as seating so they could watch the
activities from better vantage points.
tablinum
- (Latin) in a Roman house, a reception area and storage area for the images of ancestors and family records.
Tacitus - Publius Cornelius Tacitus, born ca. 56, died ca. 117; little is known of Tacitus, it is speculated that he is of Gallic or Northern Italian origin; his works include Histories
of the years 69-96 (?), out of 12 or 14 books, four (4) and part
of a fifth survive (on Civil Wars, years 69-70); Annals
covering the years 14-68, with 10 out of 16 or 18 books (minus
parts of book 3) surviving and covering the reigns of Tiberius,
part of Claudius' reign, and most of Nero's; his earlier works
include Agricola, a biography of his father-in-law, Germania,
and Dialogus de Oratoribus (Dialogue on Orators).
Tarpeia - a woman from Roman legend who betrayed the Roman army; when the early Romans stole the Sabine women, the daughter of the Roman commander fell in love with the king of the Sabine people; Tarpeia arranged that the Sabine king would marry her if she allowed them into the Roman fortress; the Sabines killed her once inside; a cliff was named after her on the Capitoline Hill; this “Tarpeian Rock” became the site of execution for criminals.
Taurt - as an ancient Egyptian goddess, Taurt’s primary role was to protect pregnant women; she assisted the gods Bes and Hatshepsut at childbirths; this role was appropriate for a mother goddess who was said to help in the daily birth of the sun.
Teachers'
Companion™ - materials designed for teachers that include: strategies for designing classroom curricula, suggestions for building student confidence, Perseus assignments for use at the high school and college levels, Path suggestions, model start-up assignments and bibliographical information.
Teiresias (Tiresias)
- an aged, blind Theban soothsayer (Antigone, Oedipus
the King and Bacchae); one legend says that he was
blinded by Athena because he saw her naked but at his mother's
(Chariclo) request, Athena
gave him the gift of prophecy as compensation.
Telemachus - (see entry (2) in Perseus
Encyclopedia) son of Odysseus
and Penelope; upon Odysseus' return to Ithaca, Telemachus helps
his father slaughter the suitors of Penelope.
tempestas - (Latin) storm.
Temple of Capitoline Jupiter - a Roman temple that was built on the Capitoline Hill dedicated to Jupiter; the temple was begun under Tarquinius Priscus and finished under Tarquinius Superbus at the end of the Roman monarchy; however, it was not inaugurated until 509 BCE at the beginning of the Republic; the temple had to be rebuilt numerous times after being destroyed by different fires.
Temple of Castor and Pollux
- a temple located in the Roman Forum of which there are only three columns remaining; the existing columns are over 48 feet high.
Temple of Concordia - a temple built in Rome to commemorate the peace achieved between the plebeian and patrician classes in 367 BCE.
Temple of Dionysus - a theater on the south slope of the acropolis in Athens; the temple was used for the performances of ancient Greek tragedy and comedy at the City Dionysia.
Temple of Juno Moneta
- a temple located on the Capitoline Hill dedicated to Juno; this temple housed the sacred geese that had supposedly warned the Romans that the Gauls were about to attack in 390 BCE; a flock of geese were taken care of in the temple ever since that event; eventually the temple housed a mint where money was made.
Temple of Mars Ultor - a temple in the Roman Forum in honor of Mars; ultor means “avenger” and Augustus dedicated this temple to Mars in 2 BCE to give thanks for being able to avenge the death of Julius Caesar.
Temple of Saturn - a temple to Saturn located in the Roman Forum; originally constructed around 500 BCE, it was repaired and rebuilt numerous times; the remains of the Temple of Saturn include eight Ionic columns.
Temple of Vesta - located on the Palatine Hill at the Roman Forum, the Temple of Vesta contained the sacred fire of Rome; the fire was maintained by the Vestal Virgins.
tepidarium
- (Latin) in a Roman bath, this was the warm room where a patron would prepare themselves for the calidarium,
or sauna room, after having undressed in the apodyterium.
tepidus
- (Latin) Warm/ lukewarm; this word is linked to the Latin verb tepeo, to be warm.
Terence
- (195 – 159 BCE) Roman playwright; his six plays include Andria, Hecyra and Adelphoe; many of his plays, like those of Plautus, were adapted from Greek originals, although Terence added Prologues in which he added additional information pertinent to his plays; Terence was popular throughout the following ages, helping sustain his manuscripts.
terminus - (Latin) boundary, ending.
terra - (Latin) earth, ground, soil.
terra firma
- (Latin) dry land.
terra incognita
- (Latin) Unknown land; on a map, unknown places could be labeled “terra incognita,” thereby indicating that they were still to be traveled and explored.
tesserae - (Latin) a Roman dice
game; the Romans called the six sided marked dice tesserae,
but they also had a type of dice with only four marked faces
called tali; the only difference between Roman dice and
modern dice is that the numbers were arranged such that any two
opposite sides would add up to seven; to play tesserae,
dice were shaken in a cup then tossed, as croupiers do today;
the Greeks played with three dice, but Romans played with two.
tethrippon
- a four horse chariot race established as an Olympic event in
680 BCE with a length of twelve laps around the hippodrome;
there was also a tethrippon for foals established as an
Olympic event in 384 BCE.
Tetragonon
- a gymnasium at Elis where wrestlers and boxers trained one
month prior to the start of the ancient Olympic games.
Thalia - the Muse of comedy; the Muses were nine goddesses whom artists appealed to in order to inspire their works.
Theater of Marcellus - a large theater in Rome dedicated in 13 BCE by Augustus in honor of his deceased nephew.
theatron
- theater auditorium (image).
Thebes - a Greek city that was the largest in the region of Boeotia; Thebes sided with the Persians against the Greeks in the Persian War and thus were greatly demoted in power after the war ended; Sparta allied itself with Thebes later when they sought help in their struggles against Athens; after the Peloponnesian War, however, they turned against Sparta; Philip II of Macedonia took power away from Thebes and, when Philip was murdered, Thebes attempted to remove itself from its place under Macedonian power; Alexander the Great, however, showed no mercy to the Thebans and burned the city to the ground in order to demonstrate his power; he allowed only the house of the poet Pindar to remain in the city.
theologeion - in ancient Greek, "god-speaking place"; place on the roof of the skene where gods would appear.
thermae - (Latin) public baths used by the Romans to bath, for entertainment, and for therapeutic healing; most Roman baths were free though some charged a nominal fee to preclude their use by slaves and the poor; men and women bathed separately; a wealthy Roman man might bath in wine and a wealthy Roman woman in milk; the baths were a meeting place and might include a gym, a library, bars, restaurants, and even theaters; famous baths include the Baths at Bath (England), the Baths of Diocletian, and the Baths at Caracella.
Thermopylae - a narrow stretch of land between Mount Callidromus and the Euripus channel that, because of its geography, was a strategic battle site; in 480 BCE, 300 Spartans led by King Leonidas fought against the Persians and lost at Thermopylae and in 191 BCE King Antiochus lost to Cato the Elder.
Theseus
- Attic hero, son of Aegeus and Aethra but legend also says he
was the son of Poseidon;
upon learning who his father was, Theseus went to Athens at 16
baring the sword and sandals Aegeus had hidden under a rock to
identify Theseus as his son; after his reunion with his father
at Athens, Theseus is sent to Crete with the Athenian tribute
to Minos, where helped by Ariadne the daughter of Minos, he kills
the Minotaur; see Plutarch's Theseus
for more.
Thetis - daughter of Nereus and Doris, sea divinity and the most famous of the Nerieds; mother of Achilles
whom she bathed in the river Styx in hopes to make him immortal.
The
Thirty - a committee of Athenian oligarchs who, when given control of Athens in order to revise the constitution, used their power to rid Athens of their democratic enemies (Apology).
Thoth - Thoth was the ancient Egyptian god of writing, wisdom, learning, and the moon; according to myth, Thoth invented writing, was the author of the Book of the Dead, and was the vizier and scribe of the afterlife.
Thrace - a large region encompassing parts of present-day Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey; Thrace was colonized by the ancient Greeks in the 6th century BCE and then by the Macedonians; following the Macedonian rule, Thrace was controlled by various empires; Rome ruled Thrace beginning in 46 CE
Thrasybulus
- tyrant of Miletus from 625 BCE to 600 BCE; according to one
story, the tyrant Periander
asks Thrasybulus how he to keep his power; Thrasybulus responds
by cutting off the tallest ears of corn in a corn field; Periander
understands Thrasybulus' action to mean that he should kill or
exile his potential political opponents.
Thucydides
- ancient Greek historian of the Peloponnesian War between Athens
and Sparta; Thucydides began writing his History of the Peloponnesian
War in 431 BCE; during the time Thucydides composed his History,
he was exiled from Athens because, as an Athenian general, he
failed to save the town of Amphipolis from the the Spartan general
Brasidas; his History was published in 395 BCE.
thymbra - (Latin) the herb savory.
thymum - (Latin) thyme, the herb.
thyrsos
- a staff with one end covered with leafy vines and/or pine cones
carried by Dionysus
and his followers in a Bacchic procession; for an example, see
Louvre
K 240 (image).
Tiber - river that runs through Rome.
Tiberius - (42 BCE-37 CE) Tiberius Claudius Nero born in 42 BCE; father Ti. Claudius Nero and mother, Livia Drusilla; his mother divorced T. Claudius Nero to marry Augustus (Octavian) thus he become the stepson of Augustus and later married his daughter Julia; Tiberius became the adopted heir of Augustus in 4 CE and receives tribunician and proconsular power; prior to becoming emperor, Tiberius was a successful soldier and subdued Germany in 9 CE; he also held the consulship twice, first in 13 BCE and again in 7 BCE; he reigned as Roman Emperor from 14 to 37; during his reign he was not well liked by the Roman people; it was rumored that he played a part in the death of his very popular stepbrother Germanicus; during the later part of his reign, he moved to Capri while his Praetorian Prefect, Sejanus, was in Rome; Tiberius later tried Sejanus for treason accusing Sejanus of plotting to murder him; Tiberius spent the end of his reign paranoided that someone was plotting his murder.
tibicines - (singular form tibicen) the
Tibia players were one of the oldest professional music organizations
in Rome; they were the musicians of the state religion and played
the bone pipe, an instrument with three to four holes made from
bone that eventually evolved into a double pipe of silver, ivory,
or boxwood; the tibicines played at their annual festival
of Jupiter
Optimus Maximus.
tirocinium - (Latin) the first military experience of a young man; during this period, the new soldier would have to train; period of recruitment training.
Titus - Roman emperor from 79-81 CE, son of Vespasian, born in 39 CE; when his father returned to Rome to become emperor, he left Titus to put down the Jewish Rebellion, which he accomplished in 71; he celebrated a triumph for this feat and the Arch of Titus was erected to commemorate it in the Forum in Rome; the Colosseum was built during Titus’ reign; he died of an illness in 81 CE.
toga - large cloth made of wool worn by male Roman citizens that is draped over a tunic (image).
toga praetexta - (Latin) a crimson-bordered toga that a young boy would wear.
toga virilis - (Latin) a plain white toga a boy would begin to wear between the ages of fourteen and seventeen to show that he has begun to be an adult; the toga a boy wears after having given up wearing his toga praetexta.
tonsor - (Latin) a man's barber entrusted with complete body care, cura corporis;
a tonsor had assistants who worked with him to groom a man according
to the latest fashion; grooming included shaving and haircuts;
due to the lack of sharp scissor blades, Roman men preferred
a curly hair style to conceal the poor tonsus, or haircut,
resulting from blunt iron scissors blades.
tonsorina - (Latin) a barber shop (taberna); all
Romans went to a barber, even slaves, though they went to an
open-air tonsorina; benches were available in the tonsorina for
customers to sit while waiting their turn.
tragedy - a dramatic work dealing with a serious theme in which typically a noble person possesses a character flawed by pride (hubris),
envy, weakness, etc., causing him to break a moral code or divine
law; Oedipus
is one such tragic character; to learn more about ancient Greek
Tragedy, see the Perseus Historical Overview entry "10.2.1.
The Nature of Tragedy."
tragoedia -a tragic play or a scene in a tragedy.
Trajan - one of the more successful Roman emperors; the first emperor of non-Italian origins, born in 53 to a family settled in Spain for generations; the first adopted emperor of the "Five Good Emperors," Trajan did much to reaccustom the Roma senate to the principate after the emperor Domitian's tyrranny; some of Rome's most splendid architectural remains the Forum of Trajan and Trajan's column; upom his death in 117, Trajan was suceeded by Hadrian, whom he had adopted.
Transalpine Gaul - (Gallia Transalpina or Gallia Narbonensis) a region created by boundaries that include the Pyrenee Mountains, the Alps and the Rhine; this was the oldest Roman province in Gaul and also one of its most important in the Roman drive toward expanding its territory; the region was taken in the name of Rome in 121 BCE by Q. Fabius Maximus and became more and more important as a link to Rome's more western provinces because of its strategic location and also the goods that it provided to the empire.
tribulum - (Latin) wooden sled pulled over wheat to separate the chaff.
tribune
- Roman magistrate from the plebian order; legislator who convened
the Senate; ten office holders who served to protect plebians
from arbitrary actions through a veto of any administrative action;
tribunes were considered "sacrosanct" and anyone who
attacked them could be put to death.
tributum - (Latin) an extra tax sometimes called for by the senate to be paid by Roman citizens; after 167 BCE, tributum was no longer allowed for Roman citizens, but it was still permitted that tributum could be sought from people in colonies.
triclinium - (Latin) the dining room of a house for more upper-class Romans; the triclinium’s name refers to the fact that the room generally held three couches inside of it.
trierarchy
- the office of the trieracrch, who was the commander of a trireme;
in Athens, the trierarchy had the duty of fitting out or furnishing
triremes for public service; Periandros established an Athenian
naval reform in the middle of the fourth century BCE, changing
the former system of the trierarchy, when expenses were paid
for a warship by one or two citizens, also known as trierarchs;
instead Periandros' law made 1200 citizens responsible for the
trierarchy payments dividing the financial burden for a warship
among many.
triglyph
- 'three-grooved'; on a Doric panel, what separates two metopes.
For more information, see a architectural drawing
of a triglyph and an image
of the metope of Temple
F at Selinus.
trigon - (Latin) a ball to play with.
trilogy - a set of three plays on the same theme or representing one story and performed at one competition; the only surviving trilogy is the Oresteia by Aeschylus.
tripod - a three-legged stand in which cauldrons were set; for an example, see Boston
63.1515 (image).
trireme
- a light and fast Greek oar-powered warship; principal naval
vessel for Persia,
Phoenicia, and the Greek city-states; a trireme was propelled
by the arrangement of 170 oarsmen in three tiers along each side
of the vessel - 31 oarsmen in the top tier, 27 in the middle,
and 27 in the bottom; the trireme's hull was constructed from
a thin shell of planks; it had an overall length of approximately
120 feet (37 m) and a beam of 18 feet (5.5 m); affixed to the
front of the trireme was a bronze-clad ram designed to pierce
the hulls of enemy warships.
triskeles - three legs or a three-legged design in a pinwheel shape.
tristis - (Latin) sad, depressing.
tristitia - (Latin) sadness, wretchedness, unhappiness.
triumvirate
- a term describing a three-member board or commission; triumvirate
was first applied to the political alliance of Julius Caesar,
Pompey
the Great, and Marcus Crassus, in 60 BCE, deemed the "First
Triumvirate"; the rule of the "Second Triumvirate",
Mark Antony, Octavius,
and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, began in 43 BCE and lasted until
32 BCE.
trochus - (Latin) a hoop that a child might play with.
Trojans - people of Troy led by Hektor against the Achaians in the Trojan War and led by Aeneas in a war against the Italian allies.
tuba - (Latin) a trumpet sounded during war battles by the Romans
tubicines - (Latin) a trumpet player in the Roman military who was a senior centurion; trumpets and horns were used to sound the alarm and signal attacks, retreats, formation changes, and watch changes.
tunny - a fish; for an example, see Berlin
F 1915 (image).
turbo - (Latin) a top or a toy that spins around.
turres ambulatoriae - (Latin) literally, "movable towers"; an important tool for laying siege to a place; these towers were constructed on wheels, able to be brought up to a wall and tall enough to be bigger than the walls of a besieged city.
Twelve
Tables - coprus juris
civilis, the first codification of the Roman legal system,
used from their establishment in 450 BCE to 565 CE following
the death of Justinian I; the Twelve Tables were the result of
plebian complaints and unrest and were committed to writing to
codify existing laws and customs; accepted by a popular assembly,
initially the Twelve Tables were administered and interpreted
by priests from the patrician class; the laws and the legal system
(jus civile) that
developed around the Twelve Tables, applied only to Roman citizens;
with the expansion of the Roman Republic, and later the Roman
Empire, came the need for new laws (jus
gentium) to govern non-Roman citizens; from 367 BCE to
137 CE, praetors
(Roman magistrates) administered justice and defined and interpreted
law in Rome and in Roman provinces in all cases except those
between Roman citizens; praetors in the provinces based
their rulings on the those of the praetors in Rome; the
difference between the jus civile and jus gentium
became blurred and eventually obsolete between 100 BCE and 212
CE when Roman citizenship was extended to all free inhabitants
of the Roman Empire; the Twelve Tables are the foundation for
modern legal systems.
typology - a similarity that links different literary characters; for example, in the second half of the Aeneid, Aeneas is typologically Achilles as the two are military heroes who lay siege to a major city; further in the Aeneid, Augustus is typologically tied to Aeneas since the two politicians lead and establish a society in Italy out of the ruins of a civil war.
tyranny - a government ruled by a tyrant who uses his power oppressively or unjustly; an absolute ruler; from the Greek word tyrannos.
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