Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/628

 612 PHOENICIA. the Phoenicians off Salamis in Cyprus, b. c. 449, ■when 100 of their ships were taken, many sunk, and the remnant pursued to their own harbours. (lb. c. 112.) A cessation of hostilities now ensued between the Greeks and Persians. The Phoenician navy continued to be employed by the latter, but ■was no longer exposed to the attacks of the Athe- nians. In B.C. 411 the Phoenicians prepared a fleet of 147 vessels, to assist the Spartans against Athens ; but after advancing as far as Aspendus in Pamphylia it was suddenly recalled, either because the demonstration was a mere ruse on the part of Tissaphernes, or that the Phoenicians were obliged to defend their own coast, now threatened by the Egyptians. (Thucyd. viii. 87, 108; Diod. siii. 38, 46.) They next appear as the auxiliaries of the Athenians against the Spartans, who had gained the naval supremacy by the battle of Aegospotami, a preponderance which had changed the former pohcy of Persia. The allied fleet was led by Conon and Pharnabazus, and after the defeat of the Spartans the Phoenician seamen were employed in rebuilding the walls of Athens. (Diod. xiv. 83 ; Nep. Con. c. 4.) These events led to a more intimate con- nection between Phoenicia and Athens ; Phoenician traders appear to have settled in that city, where three Phoenician inscriptions have been discovered of the date apparently of about 380 B. c. (Gesen. Mon. Pun. i. 111.) A few years later, a decree ■was passed by the Athenian senate, establishing a proxenia between Strato, king of Sidon, and the Athenians ; whilst an immunity from the usual bur- thens imposed on aliens was granted to Sidonians settling at Athens. (Bockh, Corp. Inscr. i. 126.) About the same time we find the Phoenicians, as the subjects of Persia, engaged in a disastrous war with Evagoras, prince of Salamis in Cyprus, who ravaged their coasts, and, according to Isocrates (^Evag. p. 201) and Diodorus (xiv. 98, 110, xv. 2), captured even Tyre itself. But in 386 b. O. Evagoras ■was defeated in a great naval engagement, and sub- sequently became a tributary of Persia. (lb. xv. 9.) During all this period Sidon appears to have been the most wealthy and prosperous of the Phoenician cities. (lb. xvi. 41.) The next important event in the history of the Phoenicians is their revolt from Persia, which ended in a disastrous manner. Sidon had been oppressed by the satraps and generals of Artaxerxes Ochus; and in a general assembly of the Phoenicians at Tripolis, in b. c. 352, it was re- solved to throw off the Persian yoke. The royal residence at Sidon was destroyed and the Persians massacred. The Phoenicians then fortified Sidon, and invited Nectanebus, king of Egypt, to assist them. In the following year Ochus made great preparations to quell this revolt, and particularly to punish Sidon ; when Tennes, king of that city, alarmed at the fate which menaced him, treache- rously negotiated to betray it to the Persians. He inveigled 100 of the leading citizens into the enemy's camp, where they were put to death, and then persuaded the Egyptian mercenaries to admit the Persians into the city. The Sidonians, who had burnt their fleet in order to prevent any escape from the common danger, being tlms reduced to despair, shut themselves up with their wives and children, and set fire to their houses. Including slaves, 40,000 persons are said to have perished on this occasion. Tennes, however, suffered the merited reward of his treason, and was either put to death by Ochus or committed suicide. This calamity PHOENICIA. was a great, but not a fatal, blow to the prosperity of Sidon, which even to a much later period retained a considerable portion of her opulence. (Diod. xvi. 41, sqq.; Mela, i. 12.) The cruelty of the Persians left a lasting remem- brance, and was not wholly unrequited. When about twenty years afterwards Alexander entered Phoenicia, Sidon hastened to open her gates to him. The defeat of Darius at Issus, b. c. 333, opened the whole coast of Phoenicia to the Greeks. On his march Alexander was met by Strato, son of Gerostratus, king of Aradus, who surrendered that island to him, as well as some towns on the mainland. As he proceeded southwards he received the submission of Byblus, and entered Sidon at the invitation of the inhabitants. He deposed Strato, their king, a vassal of the Per- sians ; and Abdolonimus, who was related to Strato, but who at that time followed the humble occupation of a gardener in the suburbs of the city, was nomi- nated to the vacant throne by Alexander's general Hephaestion. (Curt. iv. 4.) The Tyrians now sent an embassy, professing submission to the Mace- donians, but without any real design of giving up their city. (Arrian, ii. 15.) It was impossible, however, for Alexander to proceed on his intended expedition, whilst so important a place lay in his rear, at best a doubtful friend, and, in case of re- verses, soon, perhaps, to become a declared enemy. With a dissimulation equal to that of the Tyrians, he sought to gain possession of their town by re- questing permission to enter and sacrifice to Her- cules, the progenitor of the royal race of Macedon, as well as the tutelary god of Tyre. But the Tyrians perceiving his design, directed him to another temple of Hercules at Palae-Tyrus, where he might sacrifice in all liberty and with still greater effect, as the f:jne, they asserted, was more ancient and venerable than that of the new city in the island. Alexander, however, still hankered after the latter, and made preparations for besieging the new town. (Arrian, ii. 15, 16 ; Curt. iv. 7, seq.) The means by which he succeeded in reducing Tyre will be ftiund described in another place. [Tyrus.] It will suffice here to say, that by means of a causeway, and after a seven months' siege, the city of merchant princes yielded to the arms of Alexander, who was assisted in the enterprise by the ships of Sidon, Byblus, and Aradus. The city was burnt, and most of the inhabitants either killed or sold into slavery. Alexander repeopled it, princi- pally, perhaps, with Carians, who seem to have been intimately connected with the Phoenicians, since ■v-e find Caria called Phoenice by Corinna and Bacchy- lides. (Athen. iv. p. 174.) After the battle of Arbela, Alexander incorporated Phoenicia, Syria and Cilicia into one province. With the true com- mercial spirit the Phoenicians availed themselves of his conquests to extend their trade, and their mer- chants, following the track of the Macedonian army, carried home myrrh and nard from the deserts of Gedrosia. (Arrian, vi. 22, Jndic. 18.) Alexander employed them to man the ships which were to sail down the Hydaspes to the Indian Ocean, as well as to build the vessels which were conveyed overland to Thapsacus on the Euphrates, with the view of descending to Babylon. {lb.) By these means he intended to colonise the islands and coasts of the Persian Gulf; but his schemes were frustrated by his death, b. c. 323. After that event Ptolemy, to whom Egypt had fallen, annexed Phoenicia, to- gether with Syria and Palestine, to his kingdom.