PART I.

no mention of Tyre. In the reign of Hiram, however, who was contemporary, as we have seen, with David and Solomon, and consequently lived only about a century later than the Trojan war, Tyre was a rich commercial city, flourishing in arts and manufactures 135. And from that æra forward the Tyrians seem to have increased in wealth and power, until their capital was invested by Salmanaser, about three hundred years after the death of Hiram.

But antiquity has left us almost utterly ignorant of the Phoenician transactions during this long period. We only learn, from the history of the neighbouring nations, that the Phenicians continued to preserve their independency, and to prosecute the arts of peace; while the bordering countries were desolated with war, or the people subjected to a foreign yoke136. And during this period it was, that a Phoenician colony from Tyre founded the famous city of Carthage, on the coast of Africa, nearly where the piratical Tunis now stands137.

Of Carthage, which soon became the capital of a great commercial state, and the rival of Rome in arms, I shall afterward have occasion to speak. At present, the commercial progress of the Phoenicians must engage our attention.

In the most early ages of which history has furnished us with any records, this industrious people possessed the whole commerce, and enjoyed the sovereignty of the Mediterranean sea'38. Sidon, which afterward

135. 1 Kings, chap. v. 9. Joseph. Antiq. lib. viii.

136. The Phoenicians were probably indebted to their pacific disposition partly, and partly to well-timed presents made to hostile. powers, for the quiet they enjoyed.

137. Justin, lib. xviii. Appian, de Bell. Pun. init. Strabo, Geog. lib. xvii.

138. Pomp. Mela, lib. i. Bochart, in Phaleg. lib. iv.

became

IX.

became subject to the kings of Tyre, was then the LETTER capital of Phoenicia, and its principal sea-port139. We accordingly find, during the heroic times in Greece, that every thing elegant or sumptuous, fit to adorn the person or the palaces of princes, was Si donian140.

From Greece, and the islands of the Archipelago, or Ægean sea, where they had planted colonies, and established commercial stations, the Phoenicians entered the Euxine sea, and navigated its most eastern shores'4'. And from the Phasis and the Cimmerian Bosphorus, they extended the trade westward to the Herculean strait and the mouth of the Tagus; and thence northward, to the coast of Gaul and Britain'42. From Britain they imported tin; and from Spain, where they settled factories, and built forts, they procured, in exchange for toys and articles of dress, immense quantities of silver, with which they not only enriched themselves, but all the Syrian nations '43. For the eastern and western coasts of the Spanish peninsula, or the present kingdoms of Spain and Portugal, were the Mexico and Peru of the ancient world 44.

Solomon, as we have already seen, opened to the Phoenicians the ports of the Red Sea, with the maritime trade of Arabia, Persia, India, and Ethiopia. And in possession of some of those ports, and the trade to which they led, the Tyrians seem to have remained, until the destruction of their city, and the building of Alexandria by the Macedonian conqueror. To the same æra, the Phenicians also retained

139. Id. ibid.

et auct. cit.

142. Diod. Sicul. lib.

lib. iii. Canaan, lib. i.

140. Hom. Iliad. et Odyss. Strabo, lib. i. 141. Mela, et Strabo, ubi sup.

v. Strabo, lib. i. iii. Bochart. in Phaleg.

143. Strabo et Bochart, ubi sup.

144. I mean, in regard to the abundance of the precious metals, and the facility with which they were obtained from the natives.

a great

PARTI.

a great share of the trade of Egypt, which they had long engrossed. And when Tyre was assailed by Salmanaser, all these sources of wealth were open to its citizens.

That great master of empire, aware of the difficulty of reducing the strong city of Tyre, unless he could cut off its communication with the sea, fitted out a fleet of sixty sail on the coast of Syria Proper; and where Sidon and every other city had submitted to his arms 45. But the Tyrians, with twelve ships, defeated the whole naval force of the Assyrian monarch, and resisted all his efforts by land, during a siege of five years1+6. His death, as we have seen, rescued them from the ruin with which they were threatened, And from the time of that deliverance, until it was invested by Nebuchadnezzar, Tyre seems to have increased in riches and grandeur,

146

Of this grandeur, and the extent of the Tyrian commerce, at the latter æra, the prophet Ezekiel gives us a magnificent description. "O Tyre!" exclaimed he, "thou hast said in thy streets I am a "city of perfect beauty.-Thy neighbours, who built "thee, have omitted nothing to embellish thee. They "have made the hull and the diverse stories of thy "ships, of the fir-trees of Senir, They have taken "a cedar from Lebanon, to make thee a mast. They "have polished the oaks of Bashan, to make thine "oars. They have employed the ivory of the Indies "to make benches for thy rowers, Fine linen, with "broidered work from Egypt, was that which thou 66 spreadest forth for thy sail. Hyacinth and purple, "from the isles of Elisha, have made thy flag. The ❝ inhabitants of Sidon and Arvad were thy rowers; "and thy wise men, O Tyre! became thy pilots.

145. Joseph. Antiq. lib. ix

146. Id. ibid.

"All

IX.

"All the ships of the sea, and all their mariners, LETTER "occupied thy commerce and thy merchandise. The "Carthaginians trafficked with thee, and filled thy "marts with silver, with tin, and lead. Javan, Tu"bal, and Meshech, were also thy merchants, and "brought to thy people slaves and vessels of brass, "They of Togarmah traded in thy fairs with horses. "and mules. The children of Dedan trafficked with "thee. Thy commerce extended to many islands; "and they gave thee, in exchange for thy wares, "magnificent carpets, ivory, and ebony. The Syri66 ans were thy merchants, because of the multitude "of thy manufactures; and they exposed to sale in "thy fairs, pearls, and purple, embroidered works of "byssus, silk, and all sorts of precious merchandise. "The people of Judah and Israel were also thy mer"chants: they traded with thee in pure wheat, in "balm, honey, oil, and rosin. Damascus, in ex66 change for thy wares, so various and so excellent, "brought thee great riches; choice wines, and wool "of a bright colour. Dan, Greece, and Mosel "traded in thy markets with iron works, myrrh, and "calamus. Arabia, and the princes of Kedar were "likewise thy merchants: they brought thee their "lambs, and rams, and goats. Shebah and Raamah 66 came also to traffick with thee: they traded in thy "markets with the most exquisite perfumes, pre"cious stones, and gold. Thine were the most dis"tinguished of all the ships of the sea. Thy mari66 ners conducted them upon the great waters. Thou "hast been loaded with riches and glory: never was 66 any city equal to thee. Thy commerce enriched "the nations, and the kings of the earth. Thou wast "the queen of the ocean: and thy seafaring men 66 were the terror of all that haunt it147,"

147. Ezekiel, chap. xxvi. xxvii. xxviii, passim.

Such

PART I.

Ant. Chr. 585.

æra 162.

Such was the city against which Nebuchadnezzar advanced with the whole strength of the Babylonian monarchy. Ithobal II. a wise and enlightened prince Nabonass. was then upon the throne of Tyre 148: and a siege of thirteen years, which that city sustained, sufficiently demonstrates his military capacity and the greatness Ant. Chr. of his resources. He appears to have fallen in defence of his capital 49; 49; which was, at last, taken by the irresistible force, and unremitted operations of Nebuchadnezzar, who laid it in ruins 50,

572. Nabonass. tra 175.

66

But the king of Babylon found nothing in Tyre to defray the expense of his armament; or to use the language of Scripture," he had no wages, nor his 46 army, for the great service he had caused it to serve against Tyre; until every head was bald, and every shoulder was peeled." The Tyrians had previously retired, with their most valuable effects, to an island that formed their spacious harbour, and had there built a new city, beyond the reach of the victorious monarch'52. They seem, however, to have made submission to the conqueror; as we find them soon after in possession of their continental territory, and flourishing under a republican form of govern

ment' 53.

This revolution makes a few observations necessary. The Phoenicians, like all the other Syrian nations, had hitherto been governed by kings. But those kings were not absolute princes; they were only a kind of chief magistrates, similar to the Grecian chieftains in the heroic times, who could do nothing with

148. Joseph. Antiq. lib. x. Ezekiel, chap. xxviii. ver. 2—5.

149. Ezek. chap. xxviiiver. 8-10.

150. Ezek. chap. xxvi. ver. 4-12. Joseph. Cont. Apion. lib. i. et Antiq. lib. x. 151. Ezek. chap. xxix. ver. 18.

152. Prideaux, Connect. part i. book ii. et. auct. cit.