Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 1.djvu/59

 ORIGIN OF THE PHOENICIANS. 39 Achcemenids ? The reason is to be sought no doubt in the fact that the Assyrian conquerors were imbued with a religious fanaticism, a sternness of tyranny and a greediness, which hurt both the interests and the pride of the Tyrians ; the tribute claimed was too heavy, and the gods who had guarded the Phoenician mariners for so many centuries saw their temples dishonoured by the truculent votaries of Assur. But however this may be the fact remains that, although the other Phoenician cities submitted as a rule to the Assyrian generals as soon as they appeared in the country, Tyre held out against them again and again. More than once, and for years at a time, she defied the whole power of Sargon and Shalmanezer V. Sennacherib, indeed, succeeded in forcing a king of his own choice upon her, and, under the last princes of his dynasty, she seems to have accepted her lot as a vassal. After the fall of Nineveh, when a Babylonian empire succeeded to that of Assyria, Phoenicia made haste to secure the alliance of Judsea, and still more of Egypt, against the new masters of the east. At this moment a new life was breathed into the Nile kingdom by the princes of the Saite dynasty, and the desire to reconquer her ancient ascendency in Syria took hold upon her. But unhappily her Pharaoh, Apries, was defeated and Jerusalem taken, while Tyre was blockaded for thirteen long years by the armies of Nebuchadnezzar.' But as the island city still retained command of the sea, she in the end compelled the Chaldseans to treat with her and raise the siege 1 (574 B.C.). A blockade so prolonged must have had a destructive effect upon Tyrian commerce. No merchandize could reach the city over land, her factories must have stood idle, her sailors must have been drawn from their proper trade to the work of war. The less stubborn Sidon must have profited by the enforced idleness of her rival to resume her ancient supremacy. But it was, indeed, a critical period for the whole of Phoenicia. While she was engaged in military and political resistance to the Ninevites and 1 Governed by the wish to show that prophecy was fulfilled, most ecclesiastical authors have tried to make out that Nebuchadnezzar took and sacked Tyre ; but Phoenician annals deny in the most formal manner that Tyre was ever taken by the Chaldaeans (MASPERO, Histoire ancienne, p. 503, No. 2). M. BERGER inclines to the same opinion. " The issue of the siege seems doubtful. The allusions to it in the sacred writings are ambiguous. But from certain other evidence it would seem that on this occasion also Tyre foiled her enemies, and that Nebuchadnezzar was obliged to come to terms " (La Phenicie, p. 10).