Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/468

 454 PHCENICIA out a vessel. Sidon and Byblus among their cities appear to have enjoyed the highest rep- utation for naval skill. Of their vessels noth- ing is known, except that they were equipped for war as well as for trade ; and their disci- pline was so good that even in Athens, the first maritime state of Greece, Xenophon cites a Phoenician ship as the best example of order and skilful arrangement that could be found. The Phoenicians were the first to apply astron- omy practically to navigation, and they had noticed the connection of the moon with the tides, with which they had become acquainted in their Atlantic voyages. Of their manufac- tures, the most famous was that of the purple dye, which they prepared from a shell fish. As Tyre was celebrated for its purple, so Sidon was noted for its glass, the invention of which was attributed by the ancients to the Phoeni- cians, though they had probably learned its use from the Egyptians. The Sidonians used the blowpipe, the lathe, and the graver, and cast mirrors of glass. Hiram the Phoenician king sent to Solomon, to aid in building the temple, an artist " skilful to work in gold and in silver, in brass, in iron, in stone, and in tim- ber, in purple, in blue, and in fine linen, and in crimson ; also to grave any manner of gra- ving." (2 Ohron. ii. 13, 14.) The Phoenicians were celebrated also for the manufacture of perfumes. Their skill in mining and metallur- gy was great, and their mining operations in Spain, Thasos, and elsewhere were carried on upon a stupendous scale and by very scientific methods. They carried to Egypt principally wine, oil, wool, and timber, taking in return glass wares and fine spun garments of byssus (either cotton or linen). They imported from Arabia myrrh, fur, and gold. They had exten- sive pearl fisheries in the Persian gulf. They obtained from India and China fine silks, oint- ments, pearls, and precious stones ; from Ar- menia, mules and horses; from Georgia, pot- tery and handsome men and women ; from Syria, wine and cotton; and from Palestine, wheat, barley, oil, and balm. They furnished the Hebrews with every variety of objects of industry and luxury, and the Greeks with fur, ointments, aromatic herbs, spices, and rare fish- es. The coast and the interior of Africa sup- plied them with fruit, vegetables, timber for house and ship building, ivory, various kinds of animals, and slaves. From the earliest period of which we have any knowledge the cities of Phoenicia were governed each by a king. Such was the condition of Canaan when invaded by the Israelites. Every town with its adjacent territory constituted a sovereignty. The mon- archy was hereditary wherever we can trace its descent, but the sanction of the people was necessary to the succession, and to them the right of election reverted in case of a vacancy of the throne. In Tyre, and probably also in Sidon and the other principal cities, a powerful aristocracy existed along with the monarchy. The chief nobles seem to have held to some extent the functions of a senate. At Tyre, when the throne was vacant, the place of the sovereign was occupied by elective magistrates called soffets or judges. A large part of the population of Phoenicia was composed of slaves, who were brought from all parts of the ancient world, and whose numbers were such in Tyre that on one occasion they rose in insurrection and expelled the free population. The cities of Phoenicia were never united under a single monarch, but generally the superior power of some city, at first Sidon and afterward Tyre, enabled it to exercise that controlling power over the others which the Greeks termed hege- mony. The three principal cities, Sidon, Tyre, and Aradus, had a place of joint meeting, the town of Tripolis, where measures of the high- est importance were decided by a representa- tive assembly. The chief defence of the Phoe- nicians was their naval power. When threat- ened by land they employed mercenary troops, for the narrow extent and limited population of their own land made it impossible to raise native armies able to cope with the Assyrians and Babylonians, or later with the Persians and Macedonians. The principal Phoenician cities, Tyre and Sidon, were founded, accord- ing to the statement of Herodotus, about 2700 or 2800 B. 0., but it is not until the time of Solomon (1000 B. C.) that we have any certain historical knowledge of their affairs. Hiram, king of Tyre, and his predecessor Abibal, are historical personages, and from them we have a regular succession of kings with dates of their reigns. The friendship and alliance of Hiram and Solomon, and the voyages of their fleets to Ophir, are recorded in Scripture. It appears from the cuneiform inscriptions that before this time Tiglath-pileser I. had marched to the Phoenician coasts, but without effecting a permanent conquest. About 915 B. C. Eth- baal, a priest, founded a new dynasty in Tyre. One of his successors left the throne to his two children Pygmalion and Elissa conjoint- ly; but, according to the legend, Pygmalion's tyranny drove Elissa (or Dido) into exile with a large body of followers, by whom Carthage was founded. (See DIDO.) About this time, that is, about the middle of the 9th century B. C., Phoenicia was compelled to acknowl- edge the suzerainty of Assyria. The foreign commerce and naval power of the Phoenicians does not seem to have suffered greatly from internal feuds and invasions. The migrations of the lonians and Dorians compelled them to relinquish some of their settlements in Grecian territory; but no serious rivalry could have ex- isted between the Greeks and the Phoenicians before the second half of the 8th century. In the latter part of this period all the Phoenician cities except Tyre, which had regained their independence, again became tributary to Assy- ria. Tyre alone successfully resisted Sargon, and sustained a siege lasting five years ; but about TOO it was conquered by the Assyrians, and Sennacherib placed on the Tyrian throne