TECHMESSA,

DAUGHTER of Teuthras, king of Phrygia, was taken captive by Ajax, the celebrated Greek hero, by whom she had a son, Erysaces. She prevented Ajax from killing himself.

TELESILLA,

A NOBLE poetess of Argos, who being advised by the oracle, which she had consulted respecting her health, to the study of the muses, soon attained such excellence, as to animate by her poetry the Argive women to repel, under her command, Cleomenes, the Spartan king, and afterwards king Demaratus, from the siege of Pamphiliacum, with great loss.

TERENTIA,

WIFE of Cicero. She became the mother of M. Cicero, and of Tullia. Cicero repudiated her, on account of her temper, he said, to marry his young, beautiful, and wealthy ward, Publilia. But the circumstance that Cicero was then deeply in debt, and wanted the fortune of his ward, explains his motives. He was in his sixty-first year, when he committed this great wrong, and as he had been married thirty years to Terentia, if her temper had been so very troublesome, he would, probably, have parted with her before. The transaction left a stain upon his private character which no apologist has been able to efface.

Terentia, after her divorce, married Sallust, Cicero's enemy, and he dying, she then married Messala Corvinus. She lived to her one hundred and third, or, according to Pliny, one hundred and seventeenth year. She seems to have been a woman of spirit and intelligence.

THAIS,

A CELEBRATED courtezan of Corinth, mistress of Alexander the Great, who persuaded him to set Persepolis on fire, in revenge for the injuries Xerxes had inflicted on her native city; and who incited the conqueror, when intoxicated, to throw the first torch himself. She afterwards became the mistress and finally the wife of Ptolemy, king of Egypt. Menander celebrated her charms, on which account she is called Menandrea.

THALESTRIS,

A QUEEN of the Amazons, who, accompanied by three hundred women, came thirty-five days' journey to meet Alexander in his Asiatic conquests, to raise children by a man whose fame was so great, and courage so uncommon. The story is, doubtless, as fabulous as that a nation of Amazons ever lived.

THEANO

WAS wife of Metapontus, king of Icaria. She was childless, and as her husband was very desirous of offspring, she obtained some children, which she made her husband believe were her own. She afterwards became a mother, and to prevent the suppositious children from inheriting the kingdom, she persuaded hers to kill them

while hunting. In the struggle her own children were slain, and Theano died of grief.

There were two other women of the same name; Theano Locrencis, a native of Locri, surnamed Melica, from the melody of her songs and lyric poems; the second was a poetess of Crete, said by some to have been the wife of Pythagoras.

THESSALONICE,

DAUGHTER of Philip II., king of Macedon, and sister of Alexander the Great; married Cassander, one of Alexander's generals, and bore him three sons, Philip IV., Antipater, and Alexander V. She was murdered by her son Antipater, because she favoured his brother Alexander's claim to the throne, although she entreated him by the memory of her maternal care of him to spare her, but in vain. THIS BE,

A BEAUTIFUL Babylonian maiden, whose unhappy love for Pyramus has rendered her immortal. The parents of the lovers opposing their union, they were able to converse only through a hole in the wall which separated their parents' houses. They made an appointment to meet at the tomb of Ninus without the city. Thisbe came first, and frightened by the appearance of a lioness, she fled to a neighbouring thicket, dropping her mantle in her flight, which was torn to pieces by the animal. Pyramus coming just in time to see the torn mantle and the lioness in the distance, concluded that Thisbe had been devoured by the wild beast. In his despair he killed himself with his sword. When Thisbe emerged from her hidingplace, and found Pyramus lying dead, she stabbed herself with the same weapon. They were buried together.

THYMELE,

A MUSICAL Composer and poetess, mentioned by Martial, and reported to have been the first who introduced into the scene a kind of dance, called by the Greeks, from this circumstance, Themelinos. From Thymele also, an altar, used in the ancient theatres, is supposed to have taken its name.

TIMOCLEA,

A THEBAN lady, sister to Theagenes, who was killed at Cheronæa, B. C. 374. One of Alexander's soldiers offered her violence, after which she led him to a well, and pretending to show him immense treasures concealed there, she pushed him into it. Alexander commended her, and forbade his soldiers to hurt the Theban women.

TIMEA,

WIFE of Agis, king of Sparta, was seduced by Alcibiades. Her son Leotychides was consequently refused the throne, though Agis, on his death-bed, declared him legitimate.

TROSINE,

WIFE of Tigranes, king of Armenia, who, upon her husband's being conquered by Pompey, was compelled to grace his entrance into Rome, B. C. about 70.

TULLIA,

A DAUGHTER of Servius Tullius, king of Rome, married Tarquinius Superbus, after she had murdered her first husband, Arunx; and consented to see Tullius assassinated, that she might be raised to the throne. She is said to have ordered her chariot to be driven over the dead body of her father, which had been thrown all bloody into one of the streets. She was afterwards banished from Rome, with her husband. Tarquinius Superbus had been before married to Tullia's sister, whom he murdered, in order to marry Tullia.

TULLIA, or TULLIOLA,

A DAUGHTER of Cicero, and Terentia, his wife. She married Caius Piso, and afterwards Furius Crassippus, and lastly P. Corn. Dolabella. Dolabella was turbulent, and the cause of much grief to Tullia, and her father, by whom she was tenderly beloved. Tullia died in childbed, about B. C. 44, soon after her divorce from Dolabella. She was about thirty-two years old at the time of her death, and appears to have been an admirable woman. She was most affectionately devoted to her father; and to the usual graces of her sex having added the more solid accomplishments of knowledge and literature, was qualified to be the companion as well as the delight of his age; and she was justly esteemed not only one of the best, but the most learned of the Roman women. Cicero's affliction at her death was so great, though philosophers came from all parts of the world to comfort him, that he withdrew for some time from all society, and devoted himself entirely to writing and reading, especially all the works he could meet with on the necessity of moderating grief.

TYMICHA,

A LACEDEMONIAN lady, consort of Myllias, a native of Crotona. Jamblichus, in his life of Pythagoras, places her at the head of his list, as the most celebrated female philosopher of the Pythagorean school. When Tymicha and her husband were carried as prisoners before Dionysius, the tyrant of Syracuse, B. C. 330, he made them both very advantageous offers, if they would reveal the mysteries of Pythagorean science; but they rejected them all with scorn and detestation. The tyrant not succeeding with the husband, took the wife apart, not doubting, from her situation at the time, that the threat of torture would make her divulge the secret; but she instantly bit off her tongue, and spat it in the tyrant's face, to show him that no pain could make her violate her pledge of secresy.

V. VASHTI,

THE beautiful wife of Ahasuerus, (or Artaxerxes,) king of Persia, gained her celebrity by disobeying her husband. Ahasuerus, who was then the most powerful monarch of the world, reigning over a

| kingdom stretching from "India to Ethiopia," gave a great feast to the governors of his provinces, his courtiers, and the people who were at his palace of Shushan. This feast lasted seven days, and every man drank wine "according to his pleasure," which means they were very gay, at least. Queen Vashti also gave a feast, at the same time, to the women of her household. the seventh day, "when the king's heart was merry with wine," he commanded Vashti to be brought before him with the crown-royal on her head, "to show the people and the princes her beauty."

On

She refused to come. The sacred historian does not inform us why she refused; the presumption is, that the thing was unprecedented, and she considered it, as it was, an outrage of her modesty to show her face to these drunken men. Her courage must have been great as her beauty, thus to have braved the displeasure of her royal and drunken husband.

In his wrath the king instantly referred the matter to his "wise men," who "knew law and judgment;" for since the days of Cyrus the Great, the kingdom of Persia had been, ostensibly, governed by established laws. But it appears there was no law which reached Vashti's case; so the king was advised to repudiate his wife by a royal decree, unjust because retrospective, and issued expressly for her conjugal disobedience. The speech of Memucar, who delivered the opinion of the council, is curious, as showing the reasons which have, usually, (in all countries more or less,) influenced men in making laws for the government of women, namely-what man requires of the sex for his own pleasure and convenience, not that which would be just towards woman, and righteous in the sight of God. See chap. i. of the Book of Esther. What became of Vashti after she was repudiated is not known. These events occurred B. C. 519.

VIPSANIA,

DAUGHTER of Marcus Agrippa, a celebrated Roman general, and mother of Drusus. She was the only one of Agrippa's daughters who died a natural death. She married Tiberius, emperor of Rome, when he was a private man. He repudiated her, and she then married Asinius Gallus.

VIRGINIA,

DAUGHTER of Virginius, a citizen of Rome, and betrothed to Icilius, was seen by Appius Claudius, a Roman decemvir, as she was going to and returning from school. Captivated by her beauty, he resolved to obtain possession of her. In order to carry out this determination, he suborned an abandoned favourite to claim her as the daughter of one of his slaves, who had been placed for a temporary period under the care of Virginius. Though evidence was brought that this story was a fabrication, yet Appius Claudius, who himself filled the office of judge upon this occasion, decreed the young Virginia to be the property of his tool. Virginius, under pretence of wishing to take a last farewell of his child, drew her aside

from the wretches who surrounded her, and plunged a knife into her bosom, while she was clinging around his neck.

The soldiers and people, incensed against the cause of this sanguinary catastrophe, instantly dragged Claudius from the seat of justice, and an end was put to the decemviral power, B. C. 450.

The popular tragedy of "Virginius," written by J. Sheridan Knowles, is a vivid portraiture of these events.

VOLUMNIA,

A ROMAN matron, and mother of Coriolanus. When her son, incensed at his banishment from Rome, was marching against it with the Volsci, she went out to meet him, accompanied by his wife Virgilia, and many other Roman matrons, and by her entreaties and persuasions induced him to withdraw his army, though that step was fatal to his own life. To show their respect for the patriotism of Volumnia, the Romans dedicated a temple to Female Fortune. She lived B. C. 488.

In Shakspeare's tragedy of Coriolanus the character of Volumnia is exquisitely portrayed, and appears to have been of a far higher order of moral developement than that of her distinguished son. She was forgiving, self-sacrificing, patriotic: he, proud, selfish, revengeful. Her noble mind subdued his stubborn will because, with womanly fortitude and fidelity, she firmly but lovingly upheld

the right, and thus prevented the wrong he would have done. His physical strength was shown to be weakness when contrasted with the power of truth which sustained her gentle spirit. Thus will moral suasion and the faith of love finally triumph over physical strength and mental power. XANTIPPE,

WIFE of Socrates, the Athenian philosopher, was remarkable for the moroseness and violence of her temper. It is said that Socrates was aware of her character, and married her to exercise his patience. She, however, loved her husband, and mourned his death, which took place about 398 B. C., with the deepest grief. If we take into the account this true love she felt for her husband, and consider what she must have suffered while he was passing his evenings in the society of the beautiful and fascinating Aspasia, we shall hardly wonder at her discontent. If his wife loved him, it must have been for his mind, as he was not endowed with attractions that win the eye and fancy of a woman; and thus loving him, she must have keenly felt the discord between the wisdom of his teachings and the foolishness of his conduct. That he acknowledged her influence over him was good, is a sufficient proof of her true devotion to him; had he been as true to her, he would have been a wiser and a better man; and she, no doubt, a much milder as well as a happier woman.

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