Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 1.djvu/41

 ORIGIN OF THE PIICF.NICIANS. 21 Phoenician Tyre, gave but a narrow site for a town. On the south side the sea seems to have now taken back to itself a strip of ground that had been reclaimed in ancient times by embankments and retaining walls. As at Arvad, the houses were very high and packed very close. 1 Allowing for all possible economy of space it is difficult to see how the island of Tyre can ever have held more than about twenty-five thousand souls.' 2 This seems aston- ishing, but we must remember, in the first place, that the insular town had a corresponding city on the main land which bore the same name, and was no doubt at least as populous as the mari- time Tyre ; and secondly, that the highly cultivated plain in the FIG. 5. Tyre before the siege of Alexander. From Renan. neighbourhood of the former supported and employed a large population of peasants and slaves. ' In times of peace, therefore, the Tyrian population was doubled, or perhaps trebled, by this continental faubourg and its smiling environs. And again we must not forget that maritime and commercial cities on islands often have an importance out of all proportion to their extent. M. Renan cites the example of St. Malo, which resembles Tyre 1 STRABO, xvi. ii. 23. It is said that the houses there are very high and have more stories than in Rome." '- The surface of this island has been estimated at 576,508 square metres. 3 Mission de Phenicie, iv. ch. ii.