Trajan's Wall
a line of fortifications in the S. of the Dobrudscha; extends from the Danube, at Czernavoda, to a point on the Black Sea, near Kustendji, a distance of 37 miles. It consists of a double (in some parts a triple) line of earth ramparts about 10 feet high, bounded on its N. side by a natural fosse formed by a marshy valley, which was long erroneously regarded as an old course of the Danube. The wall was an important defense in the Russo-Turkish War of 1854, and the invaders were twice repelled in attempts to pass it at Kostelli (April 10), and Czernavoda (April 20-22). A railway was constructed along the route in 1860, and the great cost has been the main obstacle to a project of carrying a ship canal across the valley for the purpose of avoiding the long and difficult passage by the Sulina mouth of the Danube. Another wall of the same name, constructed by a Roman legion A. D. 105-155, stretches from the Pruth E. to the Black Sea, and is included in the territory "restored" to Russia by the treaty of Berlin, July 13, 1878.
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Trajanus
Roman emperor; born in Spain, A. D. 52; the son of Trajanus, a distinguished Roman commander under Vespasian. He served against the Parthians and on the Rhine, where he acquired so high a character that Nerva adopted him and created him Cæsar in 97. Nerva died in 98, and Trajan, who was then in Germany, peaceably succeeded to the throne. One of his greatest military achievements was his defeat of the Dacians, and the reduction of Dacia to a Roman province. It is supposed that it was in commemoration of this war that he erected at Rome the column which still remains under his name. In 103 he wrote the famous epistle to Pliny, governor of Pontus and Bithynia, directing him not to search for Christians, but TRAJAN to punish them if brought before him. For some years Trajan occupied himself with the work of administration, but in 114 he set out on an expedition against the Parthians which resulted in the reduction of Armenia to a Roman province. He is said to have been sensual in his private life, but his good qualities as a ruler were such that even 250 years after his death senators greeted a new emperor with the wish that he might be more fortunate than Augustus and better than Trajan. He died in Cilicia in A. D. 117, after having nominated Hadrian as his successor.
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Trani
a town of South Italy, in the province of Bari; on the Adriatic; 95 miles W. N. W. of Brindisi. It is an archbishop's see, has a cathedral, built about 1100, with a Romanesque portal and bronze doors of 1175, the fine church Sta. Maria Immaculata, several convents, a castle, a theater, an orphanage, a high school, a technical school, and a priests' college. Trani has important fisheries, and considerable trade in oil, corn, almonds, figs, and excellent wine. Trani is the ancient Turenum of the Peucetii, and was in the Middle Ages an important seaport. It was taken and burnt by the French in 1779. Pop. about 35,000,
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Transcaucasia
the tract of territory formerly belonging to Russia, and extending between the Caucasus on the N. and Turkey in Asia and Persia on the S. The provinces on both sides of the Caucasus, with the added Armenian districts, constitute Caucasus or Caucasia in the widest sense, and are under one central authority, with 10 minor provinces; but the territory is sometimes divided into North Caucasus, Transcaucasia, and Armenia. Transcaucasia comprises several provinces; total area, 94,405 square miles; pop. 7,500,000. In February, 1918, the Republic of Transcaucasia was formed, but lasted only five weeks. The Tartans, Georgians and Armenians comprising the population were unable to agree, and the two latter peoples set up republics of their own.
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Transcendentalism
in philosophy, a term applied to the Kantian philosophy from the frequent use of the term transcendental by Kant, who gave it a meaning quite distinct from that which it till then bore. The Transcendentalism of Kant inquires into, and then denies, the possibility of knowledge respecting what lies beyond the range of experience. Kant distinguished knowledge into a priori (not originating from DD experience) and a posteriori (derived from experience), thus giving to the phrase a priori knowledge a meaning different from that which it had borne in philosophy since the days of Aristotle; and he applied the epithet transcendental to the knowledge that certain intuitions (such as time and space) and conceptions, to which he gave the Aristotelian name of categories, were independent of experience. Necessity and strict universality are for Kant the sure signs of non-empirical cognition. Transcendental philosphy is a philosophy of the merely speculative pure reason; for all moral practice, so far as it involves motive, refers to the feeling, and feeling is always empirical. The word is applied also to the philosophy of Schelling and and Hegel, who assert the identity of the subject and object. In theology, the name given to a religious movement in New England in 1839, in which Emerson and Channing took a prominent part.
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Transept
in architecture, that part of a church which is placed between the nave and the choir, extending transversely on each side, so as to give to the building the form of a cross. The transept was not originally symbolical, but was derived from the transverse hall or gallery in the ancient basilicas, at the upper end of the nave, its length being equal to the united breadth of the nave and aisles. This accidental approximation to the form of a cross was perceived by later architects, who accordingly lengthened the transept on each side so as to make the ground plan of the church completely cruciform.
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Transfiguration
FEAST OF THE, a festival instituted in honor of the Transfiguration of Christ (Matt. xvii: 2); is one of the 12 great feasts which come next after Easter in dignity. In the Anglican church it is only a blackletter feast. It is commonly said to have been instituted in the West by Pope Calixtus III. (1455-1458), but is mentioned in the 9th century. Both Greeks and Westerns keep it on Aug. 6.
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