Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/625

 PHOENICIA. one side it is alleged that Sidon is styled in Scripture the eldest bom of Canaan (Ge«. xlix. 13). wliilst Tyre is not mentioned till the invasion of Palestine by the Israelites. (JosA.xix. 29.) But in the former passage there is nothing to connect the person with the city ; and the second argument is at best only negative. It is fiurther urged that the name of Tyre does not once occur in Homer, though the Sidonians are frequently mentioned; and in one pas- sage {Od. xiii. 285) Sidonia is used as the general name of Phoenicia. This, however, only shows that, in the time of Homer, Sidonia was the leading city, and does not prove that it was founded before Tyre. The same remark may be applied to the silence of Scripture. Tliat Tyre was in existence, and must have been a flourishing city in the time of Homer, is unquestionable ; since, as will be seen further on, she founded the colony of Gadeira, or Cadiz, not long after the Trojan War ; and many years of commercial prosperity must have elapsed before she could have planted so distant a possession. Poets, who are not bound to historical accuracy, will often use one name in preference to another merely because it is more sonorous, or for some similar reason ; and Strabo (xvi. p. 756"), in commenting upon this very circumstance of Homer's silence, observes that it was (nly the poets who glorified Sidon, whilst the Phoenician colonists, both in Africa and Spain, gave the preference to Tyre. This pas- sage has been cited in proof of Strabo's own decision in favour of Sidon; but, from the ambiguous word- ing of it, nothing certain can be concluded. Jlovers (ii. pt. i. p. 118) even construes it in favour of Tyre ; but it must be confessed that the opposite view is rather strengthened by another passage (i. p. 40) in which Strabo calls Sidon the metropolis of the Phoenicians (tj;;' fj-rirpoTroXiv avTSiv). On the other hand, it may be remarked, that all the most ancient Phoenician traditions relate to Tyre, and not to Sidon ; that Tyre is called fj.aTepa oi- viKoiv by Meleager the epigrammatist (^Anth. Graec. vii. 428. 13), who lived before the time of Strabo ; that an inscription to the same effect is found on a coin of Antiochus IV., b. c. 175 — 164 (Gesen. Mon. Phoen. i. 262) ; and that the later Roman and Greek writers seem unanimously to have re- garded the claim of Tyre to superior antiquity as preferable. Thus the emperor Hadrian settled the ancient dispute in favour of that city (Suidas, s. v. HavAos Tvpios), and other testimonies will be found in Orosius (iii. 16), Ulpian (Big. tit. xxv.), and Eunapius (». Poiyhyr. p. 7, ed. Wytt.) It may also be remarked that if the Phoenicians came from the Persian Gulf, the name of Tyre shows that it must have been one of their earliest settlements on the Mediterranean. This dispute, however, was not confined to Tyre and Sidon, and Byblus and Berytus also claimed to be regarded as the oldest of the Phoenician cities. But however this may be, it seems certain that the latest of the Phoenician settlements in Syria, which was, perhaps^ Hamath or Epiphania on the Orontes, preceded the conquest of Canaan by the Jews, which event is usually placed in the year 1450 B.C. The expedition of Joshua into Canaan is one of the earliest events known in the history of the Phoenicians. In order to oppose his progress, the king of Hazor organised a confederacy of the Canaanite states. (Josh. ii. 10.) But the allies were overthrown with great slaughter. Ilazor was taken and destroyed, and the territory of the con- PHOENICIA. 609 federate kings, with the exception of a few fortresses, fell into the power of the Israelites. The defeated host was pursued as far as Sidon ; but neither that nor any other town of Phoenicia, properly so called fell into the hands of the Jews, nor on the whole does the expedition of Joshua seem to have had much eifect on its political condition. Yet there was a constant succession of hostilities between the Phoenicians and some of the Jewish tribes ; and in the book of Judges (x. 12) we find the Sidonians mentioned among the oppressors of Israel. Sidon, then, must have early risen to be a power- ful kingdom, as may indeed be also inferred from the Homeric poems, in which its trade and manufac- tures are frequently alluded to. Yet a year before the capture of Troy, the Sidonians were defeated by the king of Ascalon, and they were obliged to take refuge — or at all events a great proportion of them — at Tyre. (Justin, xviii. 3.) We are ignorant how this conquest was effected. The name of Ascalon probal>ly represents the whole pentapolis of Philistia; and we know that shortly after this event the Philistines were powerful enough to reduce the kingdom of Israel to the condition of a tributary, and to retain it as such till the time of David. Justin, in the passage just cited, speaks of Tyre as founded by the Sidonians (condiderunt) on this oc- casion. This expression, however, by no means implies & first foundation, since in the next chapter he again uses the same word to denote the restora- tion of Tyre by Alexander the Great. It has been already said, as will appear at greater length in the account of the Phoenician colonies, that Tyre must have been a city of considerable importance before this period. The account of Justin is corroborated by Josephus, who, in allusion no doubt to the same event, places the foundation of Tyre 240 years before that of Solomon's temple. (Ant. v'ui. 3.) If Justin followed the computation of the Parian marble, the fall of Troy took place in the year 1209 b. c. ; and if the disputed date of Solomon's temple be fixed at 969 B. c, the aera adopted by Movers (Phon. ii. pt. i. p. 149), then 969 + 240=1209. Josephus, in the pa.ssage cited, uses the word o'tK-qais, " a dwelUng in," and could no more have [meant the original foundation of Tyre than Justin, since that city is mentioned in the Old Testament as in exist- ence two centuries and a half before the building of the temple. From the period of the Sidonian migration. Tyre must be regarded as the head of the Phoenician nation. During the headship of Sidon, the history of Phoenicia is mythical. Phoenix, who is repre- sented as the father of Cadmus and Europa, is a mere personification of the country; Belus, the first king, is the god Baal; and Agenor, the reputed founder both of Tyre and Sidon, is nothing but a Greek epithet, perhaps of Hercules. The history of Tyre also, bef re the age of Solomon, is unconnected. Solomon's relations with Hiram, king of Tyro, led Josephus to search the Tynan histories of Dius and Menander. Hiram succeeded Abibal; and from this time to the foundation of Carthage there is a regular succession of dates and reigns. Tyre w:is in fact a double city, the original town being on the continent, and the new one on an island about half a mile from the shore. When the lattei was founded, the original city obtained the name ot" Palae-Tyrus, or Old Tyre. The island, however, was probably used as a naval station from the very earliest times, and as a place consecrated to the