TARANTO (25), a fortified seaport of South Italy, situated on a rocky islet which lies between the Gulf of Taranto and the Mare Piccolo, a broad inlet on the E., 72 m.  S. of Bari; is well built, and contains various interesting buildings, including a cathedral and castle; is connected with the mainland on the E. by a six-arched bridge, and by an ancient aqueduct on the W.; some textile manufactures are carried on, and oyster and mussel fisheries and fruit-growing are important; as the ancient Tarentum its history goes back to the time when it was the chief city of Magna Graecia; was captured by the Romans in 272 B.C., and after the fall of the Western Empire was successively in the hands of Goths, Lombards, and Saracens, and afterwards shared the fate of the kingdom of Naples, to which it was united in 1063.

TARAPACA (47), a maritime province of North Chili, taken from Peru in 1883; its immense deposits of nitrate of soda are a great source of wealth to the country; capital IQUIQUE (q. v.)

TARARE (12), a town of France, dep. of Rhone, 21 m.  NW. of Lyons; busy with the manufacture of muslins, silks, and other fine textiles.

TARASCON (7), a picturesque old town of France, 18 m.  SW. of Avignon; is surrounded by walls, has a 15th-century castle (King Rent’s), a Gothic church, silk and woollen factories.

TARBES (25), an old historic town of France, on the Adour, 100 m.  SW. of Toulouse; has a fine 12th-century cathedral, a Government cannon factory, etc.

TARE AND TRET, commercial terms, are deductions usually made from the gross weight of goods.  Tare is the weight of the case or covering, box, or such-like, containing the goods; deducting this the net weight is left.  Tret is a further allowance (not now so commonly deducted) made at the rate of 4 lb. for every 104 lb. for waste through dust, sand, etc.

TARENTUM.  See TARANTO.

TARGUMS, translations, dating for the most part as early as the time of Ezra, of several books of the Old Testament into Aramaic, which both in Babylonia and Palestine had become the spoken language of the Jews instead of Hebrew, executed chiefly for the service of the Synagogue; they were more or less of a paraphrastic nature, and were accompanied with comments and instances in illustration; they were delivered at first orally and then handed down by tradition, which did not improve them.  One of them, on the Pentateuch, bears the name of Onkelos, who sat at the feet of Gamaliel along with St. Paul, and another the name of Jonathan, in the historical and prophetical books, though there are others, the Jerusalem Targum and the Pseudo-Jonathan, which are of an inferior stamp and surcharged with fancies similar to those in the TALMUD (q. v.).

TARIFA (13), an interesting old Spanish seaport, the most southerly town of Europe, 21 m.  SW. of Gibraltar, derives its name from the Moorish leader Tarif, who occupied it 710 A.D.; held by the Moors for more than 500 years; still thoroughly Moorish in appearance, dingy, crowded, and surrounded by walls; is connected by causeway with the strongly-fortified Isleta de Tarifa.