Page:History of Greece Vol III.djvu/284

 268 HISTORY OF GltKKCK. rapidly as to surpass its metropolis in power and consideration , for it became the chief of all the Phenician towns. 1 Aradus, the next in importance after these two, was founded by exiles from Sidon, and all the rest either by Tyrian or Sidonian settlers. Within this confined territory was concentrated a greater degree of commercial wealth and enterprise, and manufacturing ingenuity, than could be found in any other portion of the contemporary world. Each town was an independent community, having its own sur- rounding territory and political constitution and its own hereditary prince, 2 though the annals of Tyre display many instances of princes assassinated by m^ who succeeded them on the throne. Tyre appears to have enjoyed a certain presiding, perhaps a con- trolling authority, over all of them, which was not always will- ingly submitted to; and examples occur in which the inferior towns, when Tyre was pressed by a foreign enemy, 3 took the op portunity of revolting, or at least stood aloof. The same difficulty of managing satisfactorily the relations between a presiding town and its confederates, which Grecian history manifests, is found also to prevail in Phenicia, and will be hereafter remarked in regard to Carthage ; while the same effects are also perceived, of the autonomous city polity, in keeping alive the individual en- ergies and regulated aspirations of the inhabitants. The pre- dominant sentiment of jealous town-isolation is forcibly illustrated by the circumstances of Tripolis, established jointly by Tyre, Sidon, and Aradus. It consisted of three distinct towns, each one furlong apart from the other two, and each with its own sep- arate walls ; though probably constituting to a certain extent one political community, and serving as a place of common meeting and deliberation for the entire Phenician name. 4 The outlying 1 Justin (xviii, 3) states that Sidon was the metropolis of Tyre, but the series of events which he recounts is confused and unintelligible. Strabo else, in one place, calls Sidon the //j/rpoTro/Uj- TUV QOLV'IKUV (i, p. 40) ; in another place he states it as a point disputed between the two cities, which of them was the /wyrpoTro/Uf ruv QOIVIKUV (xvi, p. 756). Quintus Curtius affirms both Tyre and Sidon to have been founded by Agenor (iv, 4, 15). 2 Sec the interesting citations of Josephus from Dius and Menandcr, who had access to the Tyrian araypaQ-.l, or chronicles (Josephus cent. A] ion. i e. 17, 18, 21 ; Antiq. J. x, 11, !. 3 Joseph. Antiq. J. ix, 14, 2 4 Diodor. xvi, 41 ; Skylax, c. 04.