They rush by thousands to see Tom Thumb. They push, they fight, they scream, they faint, they cry, “Help!” and “Murder!” They see my bills and caravan, but do not read them. Their eyes are on them, but their sense is gone.... In one week 12,000 persons paid to see Tom Thumb, while only 133½ paid to see my “Aristidês.”--Haydon, the artist, _MS. Diary_. =Thunder= (_The Giant_), a giant who fell into a river and was killed, because Jack cut the ropes which suspended a bridge which the giant was about to cross.--_Jack the Giant Killer_. _Thunder_ (_The Sons of_). James and John, the sons of Zebedee, were called “Boaner´gês.”--_Luke_ ix. 54; _Mark_ iii. 17. =Thunder and Lightning=, Stephen II. of Hungary, was surnamed _Tonnant_ (1100, 1114-1131). =Thunderbolt= (_The_). Ptolemy, king of Macedon, eldest son of Ptolemy Sotêr I., was so called from his great impetuosity (B.C. *, 285-279). Handel was called by Mozart “The Thunderbolt” (1684-1759). =Thunderbolt of Italy= (_The_), Gaston de Foix, nephew of Louis XII. (1489-1512). =Thunderbolt of War= (_The_). Roland is so called in Spanish ballads. Tisaphernês is so called in Tasso’s _Jerusalem Delivered_, xx. (1575). =Thunderer= (_The_), the _Times_ newspaper. This popular name was first given to the journal in allusion to a paragraph in one of the articles contributed by Captain Edward Sterling, while Thomas Barnes was editor. We thundered forth the other day an article on the subject of social and political reform. Some of the contemporaries caught up the expression, and called the _Times_ “The Thunderer.” Captain Sterling used to sign himself “Vetus” before he was placed on the staff of the paper. =Thundering Legion= (_The_), the twelfth legion of the Roman army under Marcus Aurēlius acting against the Quadi, A.D. 174. It was shut up in a defile, and reduced to great straits for want of water, when a body of Christians, enrolled in the legion, prayed for relief. Not only was rain sent, but the thunder and lightning so terrified the foe that a complete victory was obtained, and the legion was ever after called “The Thundering Legion.”--Dion Cassius, _Roman History_, lxxi. 8; Eusebius, _Ecclesiastical History_, v. 5. The Theban legion, _i.e._, the legion raised in the Thebaïs of Egypt, and composed of Christian soldiers led by St. Maurice, was likewise called “The Thundering Legion.” The term “Thundering Legion” existed before either of these two was so called. =Thunstone= (2 _syl._), the successor of King Arthur, in whose reign Tom Thumb was killed by a spider.--_Tom Thumb._ =Thu´rio=, a foolish rival of Valentine for the love of Silvia, daughter of the duke of Milan.--Shakespeare, _The Two Gentlemen of Verona_ (1595). =Thwacker= (_Quartermaster_), in the dragoons.--Sir W. Scott, _Redgauntlet_ (time, George III.).