THMUIS
THMUIS (Θμουίς, Hdt. 2.168; Aristides, Aegypt. vol. iii. p. 610; Ptol. 4.5.51), the modern Tmai, was a town in Lower Aegypt, situated upon a canal E. of the Nile, between its Tanite and Mendesian branches. It was the capital of the Thmuite Nome, in which the Calasirian division of the Aegyptian army possessed lands. At the time of Herodotus's visit to the Delta the Thmuite Nome had been incorporated with the Mendesian. Their incorporation was doubtless owing, partly to the superior size of the latter, and partly to their having a common object of worship in the goat Mendes (Pan), of whom Thmu was in the old Aegyptian language (Hieronym. in Isaiam, 46.1) the appellation. In the reigns of Valentinian and Theodosius the Great (A.D. 375, foll.) Thmuis was a town of some consequence, governed by its own magistrates, and exempt from the jurisdiction of the Alexandrian prefect (Amm. Marc. 22.16.6). It was also an episcopal see, and one of its bishops, Serapion, is mentioned by Heracleanus. (ap. Photium, p. 65, ed. Bekker.) Remains of the ancient city are supposed to exist at Tel-etmai or ‘Tmai, SW. of Mansoorah. A monolithal shrine and many sarcophagi of granite have been found there, and a factitious mound at the village of Ternay, raised above the level of the inundation, is probably an Aegyptian work. (Champollion, Egypte sous les Pharsaons, vol. ii. p. 114.) That dykes were essential to the preservation of the city appears from the description of it by Aristides (l.c.), who represents Thmuis as standing upon and surrounded by flat and marshy grounds.[W.B.D]