Page:A general history for colleges and high schools (Myers, 1890).djvu/88

70 THE PHŒNICIANS.

The Land and the People.—Ancient Phœnicia embraced a little strip of broken sea-coast lying between the Mediterranean and the ranges of Mount Lebanon. One of the most noted productions of the country was the fine fir-timber cut from the forests that crowned the lofty ranges of the Lebanon Mountains. The "cedar of Lebanon" holds a prominent place both in the history and the poetry of the East.

Another celebrated product of the country was the Tyrian purple, which was obtained from several varieties of the murex, a species of shell-fish, secured at first along the Phœnician coast, but later sought in distant waters, especially in the Grecian seas. The Phœnicians were of Semitic race, and of close kin to most of the so-called Canaanitish tribes. They were a maritime and trading people.

Tyre and Sidon.—The various Phœnician cities never coalesced to form a true nation. They simply constituted a sort of league, or confederacy, the petty states of which generally acknowledged the leadership of Tyre or of Sidon, the two chief cities. The place of supremacy in the confederation was at first held by Sidon, but later by Tyre.

From the 11th to the 4th century B.C., Tyre controlled, almost without dispute on the part of Sidon, the affairs of Phœnicia. During this time the maritime enterprise and energy of her merchants spread the fame of the little island-capital throughout the world. She was queen and mistress of the Mediterranean. During all the last centuries of her existence, Phœnicia was, for the most part, tributary to one or another of the great monarchies about her. She acknowledged in turn the suzerainty of the