Tarentines

“ And speaking of the Tarentines, in the fifty-second book of his Histories, he writes as follows—"The city of the Tarentines sacrifices oxen nearly every month, and celebrates public festivals; and the chief body of private individuals is always occupied in banquets and drinking parties. ”

“ But these very conditions have entailed certain drawbacks—drawbacks which Buckle would have lovingly enumerated to prove their influence upon the habits and disposition of the Tarentines. That marine situation . . . only think of three thousand years of scirocco, summer and winter! It is alone enough to explain molle Tarentum—enough to drain the energy out of a Newfoundland puppy! And then, the odious dust of the country roadways—for it is odious. ”

“ The capture of some Roman vessels, and an insult offered to an envoy of the republic by the Tarentines, led to a declaration of war against them by the Roman Senate. The Tarentines turned to Greece for aid. Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, a cousin of Alexander the Great, who had an ambition to build up such an empire in the West as his renowned kinsman had established in the East, responded to their entreaties, and crossed over into Italy with a small army of Greek mercenaries and twenty war- elephants. ”

“ Many of the Tarentines were also killed, and thirty thousand of them were sold for slaves; the army had the plunder of the town, and there was brought into the treasury three thousand talents. Whilst they were carrying off everything else as plunder, the officer who took the inventory asked what should be done with their gods, meaning the pictures and statues; Fabius answered, "Let us leave their angry gods to the Tarentines." Nevertheless, he removed the colossal statue of Hercules, and had it set up in the capitol, with one of himself on horseback, in brass, near it ”

“ This being accordingly executed, while the Tarentines hurried to defend the town on the side attacked, Fabius received the signal from the Bruttian, scaled the walls, and entered the town unopposed.
Here, we must confess, ambition seems to have overcome him. To make it appear to the world that he had taken Tarentum by force and his own prowess, and not by treachery, he commanded his men to kill the Bruttians before all others ”

“ This stopped the course of the barbarians, amazed and confounded at Pyrrhus, as one more than man; so that continuing his march all the rest of the way undisturbed, he arrived at Tarentum with twenty thousand foot and three thousand horse, where, reinforcing himself with the choicest troops of the Tarentines, he advanced immediately against the Romans, who then lay encamped in the territories of the Samnites, whose affairs were extremely shattered, and their counsels broken, having been in many fights beaten by the Romans. ”

“ By these proceedings, in which he was thought to have acted with true royal magnanimity, he won the affection and support of all the inhabitants of that part of the country.
THE HANNIBALIAN WAR—TARENTUM
26. It was in the wantonness of excessive prosperity that the Tarentines invited Pyrrhus of Epirus; for democratic liberty that has enjoyed a long and unchecked career comes naturally to experience a satiety of its blessings, and then it looks out for a master; and when it has got one, it is not long before it hates him, because it is seen that the change is for the worse. ”

“ Henceforth the history of Magna Graecia is only a record of the vicissitudes of Tarentum (q.v.) . Repeated expeditions from Sparta and Epirus tried in vain to prop up the decaying Greek states against the Lucanians and Bruttians; and when in 282 the Romans appeared in the Tarentine Gulf the end was close at hand. The aid which Pyrrhus brought did little good to the Tarentines, and his final departure in 274 left them defenceless. During these constant wars the Greek cities had been steadily decaying ”

“ He therefore left Milo behind in Tarentum with a considerable force, which was strong enough to keep the [Pg 569] enemy from a siege, but was a dreadful nuisance for the place itself. The Romans now turned against the several peoples which they had to subdue, while Pyrrhus made use of a stratagem to get off. For he caused the report to be spread among the Tarentines, that he intended, first to settle matters in Macedon, and then to come back again with the whole power of that country: and really he may have had some thoughts of the kind. ”

“ Pyrrhus is said to have lost 4000 men, ‘a serious matter to him in a foreign country, where he could not easily replace the loss of his tried old warriors.’—Ihne.
Cause of the War. By 282 B.C. Rome had taken possession of Magna Graecia, with the exception of Tarentum. In 282 B.C. (in defiance of the treaty of 301 B.C.) a Roman fleet appeared before the Harbour of Tarentum. A naval battle ensued in which the Tarentines were victorious, and the war began. ”

“ Nature has given everything in plenty to the country of Tarentum. Probably the sea is nowhere in Europe so rich in shell and other fish, as in the bay of Tarentum: the poor Tarentine in his idleness is indeed as happy as a prince; he lives only on bread, salt, and olives, which he can always easily procure. Tarentum had no large tracts of land belonging to it, in which there was room for tillage. ”

“ The young Tarentine, however, took an occasion to tell his sister how he had heard that a man of station and authority had made his addresses to her; and desired her, therefore, to tell him who it was; "for," said he, "if he be a man that has bravery and reputation, it matters not what countryman he is, since at this time the sword mingles all nations, and makes them equal; compulsion makes all things honorable; and in a time when right is weak, we may be thankful if might assumes a form of gentleness." ”

“ Do you mean the inhabitants of Europe, which is a forest not yet cleared; or the inhabitants of Asia, which is a ruin about to tumble?’
‘The railroads will clear the forest,’ said Besso. ‘And what is to become of the ruin?’ asked Tancred.
‘God will not forget His land.’ ‘That is the truth; the government of this globe must be divine, and the impulse can only come from Asia.’
‘If your government only understood the Eastern question!’ said Mr. Consul-General Laurella, pricking up his ears at some half phrase that he had caught, and addressing Tancred across the table. ”

“ A feud with the Thurians for the district of the Siris was settled in 432 by the joint foundation of Heraclea, which, however, was regarded as a Tarentine colony. In the 4th century Tarentum was the first city of Magna Graecia, and its wealth and artistic culture at this time are amply attested by its rich and splendid coins; the gold pieces in particular (mainly later than 360) are perhaps the most beautiful ever struck by Greeks (see Numismatics) . ”

“ A beautiful and sometimes flickering light played over the sacred groups and figures, softening the ravages of time, and occasionally investing them with, as it were, a celestial movement.
‘The gods of the Greeks!’ exclaimed Tancred.
‘The gods of the Ansarey,’ said the Queen; ‘the gods of my fathers!’
‘I am filled with a sweet amazement,’ murmured Tancred. ‘Life is stranger than I deemed. My soul is, as it were, unsphered.’
‘Yet you know them to be gods,’ said the Queen; ‘and the Emir of the Lebanon does not know them to be gods?’
‘I feel that they are such,’ said Fakredeen. ”

“ The deep and disciplined intelligence of Tancred, trained in all the philosophy and cultured with all the knowledge of the West, acted with magnetic power upon a consciousness the bright vivacity of which was only equalled by its virgin ignorance of all that books can teach, and of those great conclusions which the studious hour can alone elaborate. Fakredeen hung upon his accents like a bee, while Tancred poured forth, without an effort, the treasures of his stored memory and long musing mind. ”

“ Entirely poetical in conception (save that it is not written in metre) , 'Tarantella' is more essentially a poem than many a narrative written in smooth and elegant verse.... 'Tarantella' is indeed full of strange originality and scenic effects of uncommon powers. The dance among the ruins is not likely to be soon forgotten by the most unimaginative of readers, and it is rarely, we think, that in an English novel the psychology of the poetic temperament has been touched by a hand so delicate and at the same time so strong."—Athenæum, January 17, 1885. ”

“ Like a smothered fire smouldering, lacking only a breath of vital gas to explode it into flame, the sentiment for Tarrano spread about the Earth.
Public opinion is fickle. It sways instinctively—not always, but often—to the winning side. Here in Venus we knew we must defeat Tarrano. ”

“ Both these requisites of success were disregarded by "Tarantella," which is very romantic, very idealistic, very eloquent, and not in the least concerned with minutiae, whether of description or of mental anatomy. Now that the taste for romance has revived, "Tarantella" ought to have another chance of taking its rightful place: for there does not appear, as there undoubtedly does in the case of some other works of genius, any conclusive reason why it should remain the property of the few. ”

“ Under the balcony, Baroni had placed a divan with many cushions, a lamp with burning coffee, and some fresh nargilehs.
‘Thank God, we are alone!’ exclaimed Fakredeen. ‘Tell me, my Tancred, what do you think of it all?’
CHAPTER XLIV. Fakredeen’s Debts
IT HAS been a great day,’ said Tancred ‘not to be forgotten.’
‘Yes; but what do you think of them? Are they the fellows I described; the men that might conquer the world?’
‘To conquer the world depends on men not only being good soldiers, but being animated by some sovereign principle that nothing can resist,’ replied Tancred. ”

“ Not devoid of that awe which is caused by the presence of the solemn and the beautiful, Tancred slowly traced his steps through the cavern sanctuary. No human being was visible. Upon his right was the fane to which Astarte led him on his visit of initiation. He was about to enter it, when, kneeling before the form of the Apollo of Antioch, he beheld the fair Queen of the Ansarey, motionless and speechless, her arms crossed upon her breast, and her eyes fixed upon her divinity, in a dream of ecstatic devotion. ”

“ Fresh exemplification of what all of us so frequently experience, that the most sagacious and matured arrangements are of little avail; that no one is present when he is wanted, and that nothing occurs as it was foreseen. Nor should we forget that the principal cause of all these mischances might perhaps be recognised in the inefficiency of the third person whom the parents of Tancred had, with so much solicitude and at so great an expense, secured to him as a companion and counsellor in his travels. ”

“ And, in an edition of Toland's History, edited with elaborate notes by R. Huddleston, schoolmaster, Lunan, and published at Montrose in 1814, I find the following, p. 357:—"Taramis, or Taranis, is the Gaelic Taran, or Tharan, i.e. 'thunder.' This god is the same with the Grecian Zeus, or the Roman Jupiter. By this deity the Celts understood Baal. Taranis, or Tharanis, is sometimes written Tanaris, or Thanaris, which bears a great affinity to the English thunder, the German Donder, and the Roman Tonitru. Lucan mentions him (lib. i.) in these words—
Et Taranis Scythicæ non mitior ara Dianæ. ”

“ Tancred's window did not give on the road, but on the coppice and the pavilion, yet when again he caught the creak of wheels it demanded little imagination on his part to picture the general sitting bolt upright in a gharry, driving to the sun-smitten town beyond. And as the clatter of hoofs fainted in the distance, Tancred took up the pen again. The letter which he then succeeded in producing was one similar to what we have all of us written and all of us received—a clear call of love, in which the words are less jotted than shaken from the end of the pen. ”

“ I did not say it aloud, for Elza's sake; but I thought it, and I realized that Georg was thinking it also.
Dr. Brende's secret of longevity was the crux of all this turmoil—the lever by which Tarrano was raising himself. Scores of facts amid the tumultuous news of these hours showed us that. For months, throughout Venus, Tarrano had spread the insidious propaganda that he alone had the secret of immortality—that when he was made ruler, he would use it for the benefit of his followers.
Converts to Tarrano's cause were everywhere. In the Central State many welcomed the coming of his army. ”

“ An Earth man of my own race! What did it mean?
I was perturbed—frightened. But I did not demur when Tarrano led us to his flower-bedecked barge. Of what use?
We were paired. Georg with Maida; Elza with Tarrano. And I? Tarrano told me curtly—and with a smile of ironic amusement—that when we reached the festival so handsome a man as I would have no trouble engaging the attention of some Venus maiden.
On cushions in the barge we reclined while our slaans poled us along the streets. Tarrano was feeding sweets to Elza as though they were gay young lovers. Poor little Elza! She was frightened. ”

“ She in her corner tried to be angry, to harden her heart, to possess herself only with the thought of Taranne's letter. But the evening was not as the morning. That dark teasing figure at the other end, outlined against the light of the window, intruded, took up a share in her reverie she resented but could not prevent nay, presently absorbed it altogether. Absurd! she had had love made to her before, and had known how to deal with it. The artist must have comrades, and the comrades may play false; well, then the artist must take care of herself. ”