TAPOSI´RIS
TAPOSI´RIS (
Ταπόσειρις,
Strab. xvii. p.799;
Ταπόσιρις,
Ptol. 4.5.34; Dioscorides, Mater. Med. 3.24;
Ταφόσιρις,
Steph. B. sub voce Tapostris, Tab. Peut.: the
Bosiri of Leo Africanus), was a town in the Libyan Nome, west of the Delta, and about 25 miles distant from Alexandreia.
There were probably several places of this name in Aegypt, since each Nome would be desirous to possess a “tomb of Osiris.” Abulfeda mentions a
Basir near Sebennytus, another in the Arsinoite Nome, the
Fyoum; a third at
Gizeh, close to the Pyramids.
The town, however, in the Libyan Nome appears to have been the most considerable of all, inasmuch as it was the place where the prefect of Alexandreia held the periodical census of the Libyan Nome. Its market, indeed, was so much frequented that the emperor Justinian (A.D. 527, foll.) constructed at Taposiris
[p. 2.1091]a town-hall, and public baths. (Procop.
de Aedif. 6.1.) Nearer Alexandreia was a smaller town of this name. (
Ταποσείρις πλησίον Ἀλεξανδρείας, Steph. B. sub voce ἡ μίκρα, Strab. xvii. p.800.)
[
W.B.D]
