Tyre Rise and Glory

7/30/2019 Tyre Rise and Glory

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T Y R E:ITS EISE, GLOEY, AND DESOLATION.

WITH NOTICES OF THE rnCENICIANS GENEEAXLy.

" Who hath talieu this counsel against Tyi'e,The crowning city, whose merchants are iirinccs.Whose ti-affickers arc the Jionourable of the earth ? "

Isaiah.

LONDON:THE EELIGIOUS TEACT SOCIETY;

Instituted 1799.


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PREFACEIn the contents of the accompanying volumean attempt has been made to bring together, ina concise form, sucli information concerningthe history of Tyre and of Phoenicia generally,as might be interesting to readers desirous ofbecoming acquainted ^Yith the results ratherthan the processes of learned and antiquarianresearches. Materials have been derived fromvarious sources, amongst which may be men-tioned the works of Herodotus and Josephus,Heeren, Gesenius, Bochart, Fairbairn on Ezekiel,as well as others, which are probably Avellknown and accessible to the English reader.Prominence has been given to matters whichmight serve to illustrate the meaning and


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IV PREFACE.

contents of the sacred Scriptures; and it hasbeen the aim of the compiler to set forth Tyreand its history as conveying a solemn lesson tothose who, in modern times, are busily engagedin the pursuits of industry and commerce.


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CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I. PageFHCENZCIA AND THE FHCEXICIANS GENERALLY . 7

CHAPTER II.tyre: its rise and early history . . . .20

CHAPTER HI.THE COLONIES AND FOREIGN POSSESSIONS OF THE PHCE-NICIANS, ^VIT^ NOTICES OF SOME OF THE PHOENICIANMONUMENTS WHICH P.KMAIN TO THE PRESENT DAY . 33

CHAPTER IV.ON THE TllADE CARRIED ON BY THE PHCEXICIANS \/BOTH BY SEA AND LAND 58

CHAPTER V.THE PIltENICIAN AS A WRITTEN LANGt'AGE, AND ITSDERIVATIVtS 88


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Vi CONTENTS.

CHAPTER VI. PageON THK rnoriiECiEs relating to tyre containedIN THE OLD TESTAMENT 98

CHAPTER VII.ON THE HISTORY OF TYRE SUBSEQUENTLY' TO THEDELIVERANCE OF THE PROPHECIES . .. . . H9

CHAPTER VITI.TYRE AT THE CHRISTIAN ERA, AND ITS CONNEXIONnlTH THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL .... 137

CHAPTER IX.THE PRESENT CONDITION AND ASPECT OF TYRE, WITHCONCLUDING REFLECTIONS . . , j 16S


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TYRE-ITS EISE, GLOEY, AND DESOLATION.

CHAPTER I.PH(ENICIA AND THE PH(EXICIA\S GENERALLY.

Phoenicia, in its proper and limited sense, em-braces that narrow tract of territory, abouttwelveuiiles ^yide,\vllicll lies at the foot of ]\Iount

"J^eHanon, and extends about one hundred milesfrom north to south. It is a beautiful and charm-ing country, producing some of the richest fruitsand loveliest flowers that grow upon the face ofthe earth. The diiference in the elevation,according as we ascend the mountain, occasionsa remarkable diversity in the climate and thenatural productions of the soil. The snows ofwinter rest upon the head of Lebanon, the gaymantle of spring is cast around its shoulders,autumn with its pleasant fruits lies embosomedin its lap, and summer in all its luxurianceextends itself between its base and the bluewaves of the ^Mediterranean Sea. The sides ofthe mountain are covered with oaks, pines,cypress trees, acacias, and tamarisks ; and


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8 PnOENICIA. ANDabove them all tower the majestic cedars ofLebanon, (ofwhich a few sjDecimens yet remain,)while apricots, peaches, pomegranates, almonds,citrons, oranges, dates, sugar-canes, and grapes,are found in the lower grounds, mingled withthe flowers of the cactus and the oleander.Aqueducts are still in existence, and vineyards,like those the traveller may see along the banksof the castellated llhine, formed by mouldwhich has been carried by the cultivator up tothe terraces of the naked rock. Streams, suchas Solomon praises in his Song of Songs,descend, now softly and silently, and now withjileasant murmur, from the heights, and windtheir way to the sea between fertile banks andamong pleasant gardens. Flocks of sheep andgoats browse among the pastures, or climbalong the hills, and busy bees gather a largesupply of excellent honey. It is a region fairand fertile to look upon, well-watered like agarden, and a meet habitation for a noble,industrious, and peace-loving people. Thiswas the home of the ancieiat Phoenicians.

The name Phojnicia, or more properly Phce-nice, was iised to denote sometimes the limitedterritory we have described, the boundaries ofwhich were the river Eleutherus on the north,and Mount Carmel in the south ; or more com-monly, in a wider and much more vague sense,almost the entire eastern coast of the Mediter-ranean Sea. Various derivations have beenfound for the name. It has been supposed tohave been derived from a term signifying red,


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10 PH(ENICIA ANDinhabitants of which bore striking resemblancein their religion and manners to the Phcenicians,and laid claim to them as colonists- It appears,however, more probable that these islands inthe Persian Gnlf were early settlements of thePhoenicians, than that the inhabitants originallyproceeded thence to colonize Phoenicia. Whileon the testimony of the already mentionedhistorians, some modern writers have favouredthe opinion that the Phoenicians came from thePersiaa (lulf^ '^^liprig_iiave_traced theni to theArabian Gulf or Eed Sea^ and_others,_among"wliom^is Hengstenberg, suppose them, withgreat probability, notwithstanding the silenceof the book of Genesis, to have settled in theircountry at the time of the dispersion of thenations. It is certain, notwithstanding thedifference in their origin, that very great simi-larity exists between the language of the Phoe-nicians and that of the Hebrews ; the Phoenicianwords in the Old Testament being easily ex-plained from the Hebrew, and the inscriptionswhich remain to us of the date of the fourthcentury before Christ more nearly resemblingthe Hebrew than any other language.

Phoenicia must have been thickly peopled,and included many floiu'ishing and prosperouscities, . most of which were engaged in trade,and had extensive and commodious harbours.The principal towns were Tyre, Zidon, Aradus,Tripoli, Byblus, and Zarepta. Of Tyre, whosehistory is intimately connected with that ofZidon, we purpose treating more particularly in


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THE PH(ENICIANS GENERALLY. 11our subsequent pages. Aradus was a city onan island, not perhaps strictly belonging toPhoenicia, but at least situated near the southernlimits of Syria. It is supposed, with the portionof the continent to which it was opposite, tohave been the seat of the Arvadites, one of thenations driven out by the Israelites on theirtaking possession of the promised land. Tripoli,on the sea-coast, was formed by settlementsfrom the three cities of Tyre, Zidon, andAradus, and thence derived its name. Thesand has now accumulated on its shore, butformerly it had a good harbour, and carriedon extensive commerce'. Byblus was principallyfamous for its celebration of the mysteries ofAdonis, at which rites were observed verysimilar to those practised among the Egyptiansin the worship of Osiris and Isis. In bothcases, the ceremonies began with lamentation,which lasted many days, and was succeeded byjoy and exultation on the arrival, it is said,at Byblus of a sealed-up jar, which had beencommitted to the sea in Egypt, and floated ofits own accord, into Phoenicia, to announce theresurrection of Adonis. A very high antiquityis claimed for Byblus, but we have no recordswhich furnish an account of its origin andearly history. Berytus also, twenty-four milessouth of Byblus, was a very ancient town, andacquired great celebrity imder the Komanemperors as a school for the study of law.Augustus Csesar made it a Eoman colony, andconferi'ed upon it many pri^aleges. In the


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12 PIIffiNICIA ANDCrusades, it was often captured and recapturedby the contending parties, and in modern timeshas become a centre of missionary operationsfor the spread of the gospel of Christ. It iswell-known by its modern name, Beyrout.Zarepta is dear to the remembrance of thereaders of the Bible as the residence of theprophet Elijah, and the scene of the raising ofthe widow's son. In later times, it is mentionedas famous for its wines.The Phosnicians appear to have been subjectto numerous petty princes, having the variouscities of the country as the centres of theirpower, and occupied rather in promoting foreigncommerce than in the extension of their territoriesor the control of their subjects. We read ofkings of Zidon, Tyre, Aradus, and Bybins, butof no ruler exercising authority over the wholeof Phoenicia. Yet there appears to have existeda confederation of the states, and Tripoli wasfounded in order to be the seat of their mutualnegotiations. The entire coast was crowdedwith towns and Avitli their busy inhabitants ; and.something like a supreme court for the settle-ment of internattonal difficulties must havebeen necessary from the proximity and constant intercourse of the states. At one time,Zidon stood at the head of the confederacy, andsubsequently Tyre.The histor}' of Phoenician idolatry is similarto that of the other nations to whom, in tlieexercise of His wisdom, no special revelation wasgranted by the Divine Being. The knowledge


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THE PHCENICIANS GENERALLY. 13of the true God, wliicli they must havebrought Avith them from the ancient seats ofthe human race, soon became obscured by theuncertainties and encroachments of man's owninvention. The powers of nature, either inproducing or destroying, were constitutedobjects of worship, and they had gods manyand lords many. The productive principle wasworshipped as Baal, (Lord,) and as the sunand this emblem, inasmuch as its rays aresometimes injurious as well as invigorating,became the sign of the destructive power. Thedeities were either male or female. Baal andAshtaroth, of whom mention is often madein the Old Testament as the goddess of theZidonians, were corresponding deities of thesame rank, the one male and the other female.Their -worship was generally united, thoughTyre was the principal seat of the male andZidon of the female deity. Amongst theirgods and goddesses, as amongst those of allheathens, there exist to modern inquirers muchintermixture and confusiondifferent cities notwholly agreeing in their conceptions of thesame deity, nor rendering their worship underthe same forms. There were numerous pro-phets of Baal similar to those who were presentat Elijah's sacrifice. They built temples, em-ployed images, presented cakes to the queen ofheaven, and, in early times, were guilty ofhuman sacrifices. Some of their temples andgroves also were the abodes of all licentious-ness and corruption. In their case it is


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14 PHCENICIA ANDinstructive, yet most painful, to observe thatno necessary opposition -was displayed betweenextensive commerce, manufacturing skill, greatwealth, as well as liberty, and the folly, degra-dation, and profligacy of heathen idolatry.

^Herodotus mentions that the Phoenicians prac-tised circumcision, but the use of it appears tohave declined amongst them, as it was unknownin the age of Josephus.In the pursuit of learning and of the artsthey made considerable progress, and particu-larly excelled in the practice of arithmetic andastronomy. These sciences were either inventedby them, or at least transmitted by them intoGreece, along with the knowledge of letters.Philosophical studies were not neglected bythem, and Josephus mentions that one Abde-monus of Tyre distinguished himself, in auinterview with Solomon, by the skill and sub-tlety of his questions. About a century beforeChrist, Antipater and Apollonius flourishedas learned philosophers of Tyre. Of the formerof these it is related, that he had a fever everyyear on the day of his birth, and, without eversuffering from any other complaint, lived to anadvanced age. The latter gave an account ofthe writings and disciples of Zeno, the founderof the sect of the Stoics, who was himsolf anative of Citium, in Cyprus, a Phoeniciancolony.

For many years, the Phoenicians had norivals as merchants, and the position of theircountry was most favourable for the interchange


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THE PH(ENICIANS GENERALLY. 15of the produce of the east and the west. Thechain of Lebanon furnished timber for theirnavies, corn was imported from Palestine, andwine, the produce of Phoenician vineyards, con-vej'ed into Egypt. Purple garments were manu-factured at Tyre, and glass also was made there 'and at Zarepta. Fine linen was woven in theircountry, and they had wonderful skill in hewingtimber, in carving wood and stone, and in themanufacture of all that was pleasant to the eye,or requisite to supply the necessaries andluxuries of life. They had establishments forcommercial purposes all along the coast of theArabian Gulf, where the productions of thecountry could be exchanged to the profit ofthe Phoenician trader for the valuables of India,Arabia, and Ethiopia. The IMidianites wereland-carriers to the Phoenicians, and conveyedtheir merchandise by regular caravans, thefortified town of Petra, in Iduma^a, being astorehouse. Arabia committed to them its gold,precious stones, and incense, and the flocks ofthe wandering Arabs provided them with wool.Long before the Greeks were a powerful people,the Phoenicians had gold mines on the southerncoasts of Thrace, and had established factorieson the Black Sea. Nor did they confine them-selves to the establishment of ports of trade,but became planters of colonies in foreign parts,which proved for ages flourishing and prosper-ous. They affected no empire but that of thesea, and aimed only at the peaceable enjoymentof their trade. From their narrow strip of


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16 PH(i:NICrA ANDterritory, immense supplies of men and property\vere transported to other regions, and thesecolonies, by increasing the commerce of themother-conntry, helped to enlarge its wealth.

t Cyprus, whose mountains are visible from thePhoenician coasts, was subject to Tyre up tothe age of Alexander the Great, and until therise of the power of the Greeks the Phoeniciansheld Sicily and the neighbouring islands. Car-thage, on the coast of Africa, was one of theirmost famous colonies, and after the fall of Tyresucceeded to her dominion over the sea, andfor a long period maintained no unequal strugglewith the rising power of Rome. From theBritish Isles the Phoenicians imported tin, andamber from the coast of Prussia; while their set-tlements on the southern coast of Spain, pro-ducing gold, silver, tin, iron, lead, fruits, wine,and oil, became sources to them of immensewealth. Their colonies do not appear to havebeen dependent for a long season on the mother-country, but to have acquired speedily thefacility of managing their own affairs, developingtheir natural resources, and engaging to mutualadvantage in trade with the nation from whomthey originally sprang. Some have thouglit,from certain passages which remain in theancient historians, that the Phoenicians werenot wholly unacquainted with the existence ofthe American continent, and also that they hadknowledge of the use of the compass in naviga-tion. In regard to their voyages, they aresaid to have exhibited an extraordinary jealousy


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THE PIUENICIANS GENERALLY. 1of the company or interference of foreigners, sotliat if they observed a stranger following intheir track, they Avere sure by some manoeuvreto get rid of him, not hesitating even to risktheir own property and lives so that they mightaccomplish their object. It is said that theyeven practised piracy in order to deter thesailors of other nations from competing withthem in navigation, for the same selfish reason;and thoy always greatly magnified the dangerof the deep and the difficulty of their enterprises.The vessels employed by them were of twokinds, the one round, and the other long ships,galleys or triremes ; and as navigators theywere the boldest, most experienced, and greatestdiscoverers of ancient times.

Like other nations whose early annals aresurrounded by an impenetrable obscurity, thePhoenicians took advantage of the absence of allhistorical information to lay claim to an im-mense antiqiiity, and boasted of nothing lessthan a duration of thirty thousand years. Therecords of their cities and the annals kept intheir temples have long ago perished. Fromthem, it is affirmed, Sanchoniathon compileda history of Phoenicia in nine books, which, ifthey had been transmitted to us, might haveproved valuable material towards the elucida-tion of the obscurities and difficulties of Phoeni-cian history. Sanchoniathon is said to haveflourished before the 'J'rojan war, and to havebeen a native either of Berytus or Tyre. AGreek translation of his work was made by


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18 PHCENICIA ANDPhilo, a native of Byblus, in the age of theEoman emperor Adrian, and from this transla-tion Porphyry, the celebrated opponent of Chris-tianity in the fourth century, borrowed somefew arguments which are preserved in thevPrceparatio Evangdica of Eusebius. Menanderof Ephesus, and Dias, a native ot the country,are other historians of Phcenicia, whose namesare attached to scanty fragments of their workspreserved in the pages of Josephus. Tatian theSyrian, the disciple of Justin Martyr, who flou-rished A.D. 170, mentions also two or threenames of Phoenician historians, but no fragmentof their works remains.The time of the highest Phcenician prosperityextended from the age of David to that of

Cyrus, and with the rise of the Grecian andRoman empire the power of the Phoeniciansrapidly diminished. They did not whollyretain their independence under the Babylonianempire, and still less under those of Greece andRome. In the time of the latter, Phcenicia wasat first a part of the province of Syria, and, aftermany changes and mutilations, at last a pro-vince by itself. Christianity extended itselfthroughout the entire district, iTUtil at thedecline of the Roman empire the Saracenicpower overran Syria, including Phoenicia, nboutA.D, 632. Then followed the Crusades, and thecountry, in common with Palestine, became thescene of the contest between the crescent andthe cross, and was at last yielded to the domi-nion of the IMoslems. As part of Syria, it


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THE PHCENICIANS GENERALLY. 19remained subject to Egypt from 1186 till1517, when the Turks overcame the IMemlookdynasty, and Syria passed into the dominion ofthe Ottoman empire. Having again for nineyears been subject to Egypt, it was restoredto the Turks in 1840 by the operations of theEnghsh fleet in the bombardment of Acre.The inhabitants of that distant island whencethe ancient Phojnicians imported their tin, hadnow risen in the revolutions of time to the pos-session of a more extensive commerce anddominion of the seas than Phoenicia in herpalmiest days ever claimed.


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20 TVliE : ITS RISE

CHAPTER 11.tyre: its rise and early history

Tyke, although not perhaps so ancient as itsneighbour Zidon, eclij^sed all other Phoeniciancities in importance, commerce, and power, atthe time Avhen the prosperity of Phoenicia wasat its height. The history of this, the principalstate, is to a great extent identical Avith that ofPlioenicia generally, and throughout this volume,therefore, little or no attempt is made carefullyto distinguish them. Isaiah calls Tyre " thedaughter of Zidon," as having been founded bythe Zidonians ; but even the foundation of Tyreis prior to the records of all history, and isreckoned by many to have taken place twohundred and forty years before the building ofSolomon's temple.The HebreAV name of this city, Tsor or

Tsur, means a rock, and was derived from itssituation on a rocky eminence, suitable fordefensive purposes, as well as adapted to over-look the surrounding sea. Our word Tyre,the Latin form Tyrus, both of Avhich occur inour English version of the Scrij^tures, andthe Greek form Turos, are all modifications,


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AKD EAKLY HISTORT. 21according to the languages to which they belong,of the original Hebrew.

Profane history gives us no certain mentionof Tyre, of the kings that ruled over it, or ofthe events of its history, previous to the briefallusion contained in the book of Judges, whereit is spoken of as the strong city, and the limitof the inheritance of the tribe of Asher. Theinformation contained in the fragments of^enander__andjpias, as preserved by Josephus, _does not reach to an earlier period than that ofDavid, Avho refers in the time of his distress tothe Tyrians as his enemies. From this refer-ence in the seventy-third Psalm it is likely thatthe Tyrians had manifested some hostilityagainst the Hebrew monarch. The first kingof Tyre who is mentioned is Abibal, but wehave no record of his actions, or of the eventsof his reign. He is said to have been suc-ceeded by his son Hiram, a name Avith Avhichour readers are more familiar, since it oftenoccurs in the history of David and Solomon.His name is variously written, Hieromus, Irom,and Chiram. The character and exploits ofDavid attracted his attention, and shortly afterhe had overcome the Jebusites, and driven themfrom the stronghold of Zion, Hiram sentambassadors to form an alliance, and congra-tulate David on his victor}'. The newly esta-blished monarch was esteemed worthy of thefriendship of the king of Tyre. Hiram madeDavid a present of cedar trees, and sent skilfulworkmen, both carpenters and masons, to build


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22 TYRE : ITS RISEa palace for him at Jerusalem. The regard ofthe Tyrian prince appears to have been strongand stedfast, and it is said of him in the book oftlie Kings that he was *' ever a lover of David,"On the death of David, Tyrian ambassadors paida visit to his son Solomon, to renew and establishthe friendship which Hiram cherished for hisfather, and to congratulate him on his accessionto the throne. The mind of the young princewas occupied with a desire to accomplish theinjunction of his father in building a house forJehovah ; the skill of Tyrian workmen hadbeen akeady displayed in the erection of hisfother's palace, and the arrival of Tyrian am-bassadors enabled him not onl}' to maintain afriendly alliance with Hiram, but furnished anopportunity to solicit assistance towards theerection of the temple. The substance ofSolomon's communication is given both in thebook of the Kings and of the Chronicles, andbetween the records there is an unmistakableagreement, although each contains matters notalluded to in the other. In the latter book, itis said that Hiram, or Huramfor the name isdifferently spelt in the Chronicles from what itis in the book of the Kingssent to David, " inwriting," to mark, we apprehend, that Hiram'sanswer was not like the communication ofSolomon, by an embassy only, but also by aletter. In the two accounts of Solomon'smessage, the one in Kings and the other inChronicles, we have the sum of the instructionsgiven to Solomon's ambassadors, according


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AND EARLY HISTORY. 23to which they were to negotiate the matterwith the king of Tyre. In the first account,Solomon mentions his design to build a houseto Jehovah as one which Hiram knew hisfather David entertained, but from the execu-tion of which he was debarred by frequentwarfare. " Now," Solomon writes, " the Lordmy God hath given me rest on every side ;" andhe declares his purpose to build the house. Heasks Hiram to furnish cedar trees out ofLebanon, and to unite Tyrian workmen withthe Israelites in hewing the timber, " for thouknowest there is not among us any that canskill to hew timber like unto the Sidonians."The second account in Chronicles is longerthan that in Elings. In it Solomon remindsHiram of the kindness he had shown in sendingcedars to David for his palace, and asks him toshow similar kindness to his son. The purposeof the house w^hich Solomon is about to build ismore fully explained, together with the natureof Jewish sacrifices. It is to burn before Solo-mon's God " sweet incense, and for the con-tinual shewbread, and for the bixrnt offerings,morning and evening, on the sabbaths, and onthe new moons, and on the solemn feasts of theLord our God." The greatness of Jehovah isexplained as above all gods, and his omni-potence referred to in the declaration, " theheaven and heaven of heavens cannot containHim." Then comes a request for a Tyrianartist, who shall be skilful in working in gold,silver, brass, iron, purple, and crimson, and


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2'i TYRE : ITS MSEblue, and also in engravinjj, in all which arts,from the nature of Tyrian manufactures andcommerce, Hiram's servants would excel.Material also Solomon declares he shall wantcedar trees, firs, algum trees out of Lebanon,and servants from llirara, who shall work witlihis own servants in hewing the timber, ofwhich large quantities Avill be required; " for,"he adds, " the house which I am about to buildshall be wonderful great." In recompense forthis lai'ge demand of produce and labour,Solomon offers a large and stipulated quantifyof wheat, barley, wine, and oil.

"\Ye have two accounts also of Hiram's reply.In this he solenmly renders thanks to the" God of Israel, that made heaven and earth,"for the wisdom with which he has favouredSolomon. He will do all that Solomon wishesconcerning timber of fir and cedars, and Avillsend a skilful workman. He shall be, f.rfriendship's sake, son of a woman of P.\ii,although his father is a Tyrian, and shall haveskill in the branches of art which Solomonrequires. Hiram promises that the timberhewn on Lebanon shall be brought down byhis servants to the sea, and conveyed by fioatsto a place Solomon shall fix. Hiram acceptswith pleasure Solomon's offer in return of foodfor his household,the wheat, barle)', Avine,and oil. The place fixed upon for the deliveryof the timber was Joppa, whence it had to beconveyed by land carriage to Jerusalem. Joppawas the Israclitish port up to the time that


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AND EARLY HISTORY. 25Herod formed the harbour at Csesarea, andwas by no means commodious or easy of access.The gift of food for Hiram's household wasarranged to be for a certain number of years,for we are told that Solomon gave it to Hiram" year by year." An immense number of work-men were drafted by Solomon out of Israel, andsent to Lebanon to secure the timber, so that tlieintercourse between Jerusalem and Palestine ge-nerally and Tyre in this age, must liave beenvery abundant. Detachments of these Israeliteworkmen remained a month in Lebanon, andthen returned, to be succeeded by another set.

In the writings of Josephus we have otherversions of Solomon's and Hiram's communi-cations, not different in substance, thoughvarying in words from those in the HebrewScriptures. It is worthy of remark, thatJosephus mentions that these letters of theprince formed part of the Tyrian as well as theJewish records. " The copies," writes Jose-phus, " are yet at this day kejjt, not only bythose of our nation, but also by the Tyrians,so that if any man desire exactly to know whatthey be, let him search the public records ofthe Tyrians, and he shall find in them mattersagreeing to what we have said." It is plain,then, if credit is to be given to the Jewish his-torian, that at this early age documents of statewere carefully preserved by the inhabitants ofTyre, and that the art of writing was readilypractised among them. The first appearanceof Tyre on the page of sacred history is thus


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26 TTRE : ITS RISE *in full accordance with all that can be gatheredfrom heathen historians as well as with thesurviving monuments of Phoenician skill andprowess, which testify of her early and ad-vanced civilization.Of Hiram, the Tyrian monarch, other facts

are narrated. Although he contributed onehundred and twenty talents of gold towards thebuilding of the Lord's temple at Jerusalem, heis said, in his own coimtry, to have dedicated agolden pillar to Jupiter, and to have builttemples to Hercules and to Astarte, the Ashta-roth of the Sidonians, enriching the shrines ofthe god and goddess with many valuable gifts.Besides the yearly presents of food for hishousehold, Solomon gave him, as an acknow-ledgment of his kindness, twenty cities in theland of Galilee, not far from Tyre. To thesecities Pliram paid a visit of inspection, and forsome cause they did not please him. Theyreceived the name of Cabul, the meaning ofwhich is " displeasing,^^ though Bochart andsome others would render it " hoimdary.''^There was a to-\\Tn named Cabul in the tribe ofZebulun, which may have been one of thetwenty, and have given its name to the entiredistrict. Solomon had reason to regard thegift as handsome, since the territory was pro-ductive, but the Phosnicians would haveattached greater value to a part of the coast.A desire for maritime cities may have ledHiram to decline the gift|but the refusal dbesnot seem tohave diminished Tilslriendship.


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AND EARLY HISTORY. 27When Elath and Ezion-Geber came into pos-session of the Jews, the Tyrian alliance wasmost convenient, and ships were fitted out byPhojuician shipwrights and pilots to carry onthe trade to Ophir.

Dias, as quoted by Josephus, informs usthat love of wisdom was the prevalent motivein the friendship Avhich subsisted betweenHiram and Solomon, and that they exchangedriddles to test each other's powers of discovery,and that Solomon was most successful. It isalso related that Hiram gave Solomon hisdaughter in marriage, and that her influence, incommon with that of his other heathen wives,was most pernicious in leading him to theworship of strange gods, particularly of Ashta-roth, goddess of the Sidonians, who is men-tioned by Jehovah as one of the idols set up bySolomon, and on whose account the kingdomwould be rent from his descendant, and in partgiven to Jeroboam. During the reign of Hiram,Tyre was greatly enlarged, and many publicbuildings erected. He was not a military, buta commercial prince, and his reign lasted thirty-four years.

Of the successor of Hiram we have no otherinformation than that his name was Baleazar,that he reigned, according to Josephus, sevenyears, and died in the forty-third year of hisage. His son succeeded him in the govern-ment, and his reign was terminated by an out-break, in which he was slain, in the twentiethyear of his life, by the four sons of his nurse,


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28 TYRE : ITS RISEtlie eldest of whom obtained possession of thekingdom. Twelve years of civil strife and.commotion elapsed, when the brother of theking who had been so cruelly murdered reco-vered the throne to his family. His name wasAstartus, and he reigned twelve yeati's. Hisbrother succeeded him, and was assassinatedby another brother, who did not long enjoy thegovernment, for he was also murdered in theeighth month of his reign by his nephew, whoavenged his father's death, and ascended thethrone. His name appears as Ithobal. Manyof .these Tyrian names, we may remark, com-prised in them the title of Baal, the chief deity ofthe Tyrians. The new usurper was the chiefpriest of the goddess Astarte, and as such liadstood in dignity next to the king. He wasmost likely the father of Jezebel, the wife ofAhab of Israel, who is mentioned as havingbeen Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians. It islikely, we may observe, that the kingdoms ofTyre and Sidon were at this time united, andthat the title of king of Tyre, or king of Zidon,was emploj'ed indiscriminately.

Menander, the historian, tells us that in thereign of Ethbaal there happened an extremedrought, which lasted a whole year. Prayerswere made to remove the judgment, and theywere followed by mighty claps of thunder. Inthis narrative we have evidently a reference to thedrought which occurred in the reign of Ahab,and of which the prophet Elijah gave solemnwarning. It may not have extended in all its


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AND EARLY HISTORY. 29intensity and duration to the Phoenician coast,or the historian may not have recorded accu-rately the exact time. But it is remarl^ablethat IMenander connects its termination withthe prayers of men; and though he does notrefer these events to Him who causeth his sunto shine, and his rain to descend on the eviland the good, yet his brief record harmonizeswith the sentiment of the apostle James, whenreferring to tlie same circumstance, " the effec-tual fervent prayer of a righteous man availethmuch. Ellas was a man subject to like pas-sions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that itmight not rain : and it rained not on the earthby the space of three years and six months."After Ethbaal, came his son Badezor for sixyears, and Slettinus his son for nine. Mettinusleft two sons, Pygmalion and Barca, and twodaughters, Eliza and Anna. Pygmalion wasonly sixteen when he ascended the throne, andhis reign was in duration forty years. Eliza,otherwise Dido, the sister of Pygmalion, is theperson who sustains so important a part inthe beautiful poem of Virgil. She foundedCarthage, the mightiest of the colonies of Tyre.Virgil has taken strange liberties with hername and character, but as a historic per-sonage she had an existence more real than inthe lively imagination of the poet. The occa-sion of her flight is thus related in a tradition,the particulars of which may be reasonablysupposed to convey some facts of history.Pygmalion coveted the immense riches of


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30 TYRE : ITS EISESiclijeus, the husband of Dido, and priest ofHercules. As long as Sichceus lived, theseriches could not pass into the hands of Pygma-lion, and to effect his purpose of securing them,the king invited Sichoeus one day to hunt withhim, and while the attendants were absent inpursuit of a wild boar, despatched him with aspear, threw his body down a precipice, andgave out that the fall had occasioned his death.Virgil has another version of the story, makingPygmalion slay Sichoeus at the altar. Dido,the widow, suspecting the avaricious murderer,determined to disappoint him by privately with-drawing both herself and her treasures fromTyre. She asked permission to have a fleetfitted out to convey herself and her efiects to asmall distance from Tyre, to dwell with herbrother Barca, The king could not deny herrequest, and hoped to seize herself and hertreasures before the vessels set sail. Severalsenators joined Dido in the plot, and determinedto accompany the fugitive. Everything wassuccessfully conducted, the treasures were onboard, and the vessels had set sail before Pyg-malion was aware of their departure. To pur-sue was a task of difficidty, and opposed to theentreaties of his mother, the threats of oracles,and the wishes of the Tyrian people. Havingsecured a company of young women at Cyprus,the colony proceeded to Africa, where land wasobtained from the Libyans. In the yearB.C. 878, and about one hundred and twenty-five years before the foundation of Home, the


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AND EARLY HISTORY. S'lcity of Carthage was tlius established. Barca,who accompanied his sister, became the fatlierof the illustrious family of the Barca;, and theancestor of the renowned Hannibal.The next king of Tyre mentioned is Elulceus,

whose reign brings us to the age of Shalmanezerking^ Assyria, between whom and the Tyriaus...,occurred more than one contest, with an issuewhich served to manifest the prowess andstrengthen the confidence of the latter. The cityof Gath became the immediate cause of collisionbetween the Assyrian and Phoenician powers. Ithad formerly been subject to Tyre, but had revolt-ed with success from its former masters at someperiod when their hands were fully employed.Hezekiah having been successful in reducingthe Philistines, Elulseus thought it a suitableopportunity to recover Gath, and commencedhostilities against it. The Gathites thereuponmade application for aid to Assyria, a powerwhich it might be thought that Tyre would betotally unable to resist. Shalmanezer marchedinto Phoenicia with an army, but no trial ofstrength ensued, and a peace was concludedbetween the parties. Not long afterwards,disturbances broke out among the Phoeniciansthemselves, and several neighbouring citiesrevolted against Tyre, and called in the aid ofShalmanezer to defend them. The power ofAssyria was now with full energy summonedinto requisition to subdue the trading city. Amighty army was sent forth by land, while afleet of sixty sail was equipped. Nothing


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h2 TYKE : ITS rJSE AND EARLY HISTORY.claimted by the number and strength of theiradversaries, the Tyrians prepared to offerstedfast resistance, and to defend their coiuitryby all the resources at their command. Twelvevessels attacked the proud flget of the king ofAssyria and completely routed it. The effectof this victoiy laid open the sea for the relief ofthe besieged, and gained them great reputationfor skill in naval affairs. Shalmanezer declinedfurther to contend with them by sea, and leavinghis army to carry on a protracted blockade byland returned into Assyria. The forces he leftbehind him reduced the city to great straits bystopping the aqueducts, placing guards over thesprings, and interrupting all the supplies ofwater. But the Tyrians obtained relief bydigging -wells within the city, and held out forthe space of five years, at the end of which timeShalmanezer died, the siege was raised, andTyre remained unconquered. The successfultermination of this contest led the Tyrians tocherish vain-glorious self-confidence, to exult atthe fall of Jerusalem their ancient ally, and toregard their position as one of extraordinarysecurity. It \vas at this very period thatJehovah declared by the lips of his prophet thejudgment about to be poured out on themerchant city. Before proceeding to theseprophecies, some account must be given by usof the colonies and trade of Tyre and thePhoenicians.


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THE COLONIES OF THE FHCENICIANS.

CHAPTER III.THE COLONIES AND FOREIGN POSSESSIONS OF THE PHO!:-NICIANS, WITH NOTICES OF SOME OF THE PHCEMCIAXMONUMENTS WHICH REMAIN TO THE PRESENT DAV.TuE colonies and foreign possessions of thePhoenicians were most extensive and valuable,far exceeding those of any other state in ancientor modern times, possessing in its original terri-tory no larger an amount of the world's suriacethan ancient Phoenicia. These colonies werenot obtained by conquest, or, as in the case ofmany other nations, by the forcible removal ofthe original inhabitants, and the settlement ofothers from a distance in the vacant territorybut they were peaceable emigrations of enter-prising traders to such localities as werediscovered from time to time by bold naviga-tors, and which were considered to presentopportunities for originating and maintainingcommerce. These colonies, dependent for ashort period on the mother-state, began veryshortly after their formation to exercise upon itthe most lively influence ; transferred its habitsand institutions into districts, where they becamegradually subjected to such alterations as


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34 THE COLONIES AND FOREIGN POSSESSIONSlocality and association demanded, and reap-peared in new forms ; and when, by suddenrevolution or foreign conquest, the parent coun-try became enfeebled, or retired from theactivities of distant commerce, these colonies, asyouthful and vigorous children, were preparedto sustain and to enlarge the enterprises oftheir fathers.

The situation of Phoenicia rendered it im-possible for its inhabitants to extend theirterritory in Asia by conquest, but they hadbefore them the Mediterranean Sea, with itsneighbouring and numerous islands. Thenearest and largest of these, Cyprus, occupieda large share of their attention, and Vv'as one oftheir early colonies. Here the Tyrians esta-blished themselves for many years, and made theisland one of their provinces. They seem tohave had imdisputed dominion over it untilShalmanezer invaded Syria, when the Cyprianstook an opportunity of rebelling against Tyre.Citium was the earliest and principal settle-ment, and it gave its name, not only to thewhole island of Cyprus, but to the districtembracing the smaller islands of the Archi-pelago. The name is clearly the same as thatwhich stands in our English Bibles as Chittim.The city itself, situated on the southern coastof Cyprus, was not of great size, but wellfortified, having a harbour, the gates of whichcould be closed to prevent the intrusion of anyunwelcome visitor. Its eifort to throw off theTyrian authority in the age of Shalmanezer


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OF THE PHCENICIANS. 35proved unsuccessful, and the island remainedsubject to Tyre until the time of Amasis kingof Egypt. According to Herodotus, thatmonarch subjugated the whole of Cyprus, andrendered it tributary to him. It passed underthe dominion of the Persians by the successfulinroad of either Cyrus or Cambyses, and madean ineffectual effort to regain independenceduring the reign of Darius Hystaspes. In thetime of the Pelopponesian war, Cimon theAthenian attacked Citiura as a part of thePersian dominions, and it was then sufficientlypowerful to sustain a siege conducted by thiswarlike and skilful general. Cimon died whileengaged in this expedition, and Cyprus seemsto have thrown off the Persian yoke and en-joyed its former liberty. It lost it again,however, and was subject to the kings of Egyptand of Syria, until it came under the power ofthe all-conquering Romans. The city of Citiumand island of Cyprus stood in the closest con-nexion with Tyre, so much so, indeed, that in thecapture of the parent city, Alexander consideredthat he had virtually secured the subjugationof Cyprus. Almost all the cities in the islandwere of PhcEnician origin ; it was indeedthoroughly a Phoenician province, and of greatimportance as supplying all the materials forship-building. On the coasts of Cyprus wereconstructed the vessels in which Tj'rian sailorsnavigated the deep, and the timber grown inthe groves and forests of Cyprus occasionallyfound its way beyond the Pillars of Hercules


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36 THE COLONIES AND FOREIGN rOSSESSIONSto the far distant islands of Scilly and ofBritain.

In the year 1738, Eichard Pocock, whilespending some tjme in the island of Cyprus,discovered no less than thirty-three inscriptionsin the Phosnician character which had been dugout of the foundations of Citium. He took anaccount of them, and published it in his bookentitled " Description of the East. London,1745." Dr. Porter, while exploring the islandof Cyprus a short time after Pocock, saw thesame stones with their inscriptions. Hebrought one of them with him to England, andtook an exact copy of twenty-nine others.The stone itself found its way to the BodleianMuseum, and five of the copies Avere published,being edited by a Mr. John Swinton. Theremainder, it is to be feared, are irretrievablylost. Swinton's papers were scattered at hisdeath, and Avere either destroyed or fell intothe hands of those who did not know theirvalue. Gesenius, in his " Phosnician Monu-ments," has, Avith great learning and care, en-deavoured to decipher from the copies pre-served by Porter and SAvinton, as Avell as thoseof Pocock, the meaning of the inscriptionsreferred to above, and to his learned treatisethe student Avho Avishes to satisfy his curiosityrespecting them is directed. The first Avritingcontains the expression of a desire that thedivinity Avho A\'as propitious to the fathers intheir ancient temple, Avould prove so still totheir descendants in a neAV edifice erected to


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OF THE PHCENICIANS. 37Astarte. The second is a funereal monumentto the memory of a wife. The third, fourth,and fifth, are of a dedicatory or funereal cha-racter. The sixth is much bi-oken, and only afew letters can be deciphered. The ninth isillegible; and the seventh, eighth, and tenth, onto the fifteenth, are all funereal monuments,bearing inscriptions somewhat similar to thoseon our gravestones. The fifteenth has ap-pended to the name a short sentence, express-ing the vanity of man as mortal :" Thereward of him who heapeth up much (treasure)he is despised,"a sentence which harmonizeswith many sentiments of the Hebrew prophets.To the twenty-second is appended the sentence," After rain, the sun will shine." The otherinscriptions are similar in kind, so far as theycan be deciphered. Dr. E. D. Clarke, in histravels in various coimtries in Europe, de-scribes a precious stone bearing a Phoenicianinscription. It is an onyx, having upon it therepresentation of a dove, a very ancient symbolof Venus and Astarte, It has also upon it aninscription, which has been deciphered as " ToBesach son of Anichad." These are all in-teresting memorials of the association of thePhoenicians with the island of Cyprus, of Avhichwritten history furnishes us with only scantyinformation.

The ancient Melita, or modern Malta, wasanother of tlie islands in the Mediterranean Seawhich was occupied in very early times by thePhoenicians. The name Melita signifies aharbour


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38 THE COLONIES AND FOREIGN POSSESSIONSor place of refuge, and the island was especiallyesteemed for the safe and convenient shelter itafforded to vessels in navigating the Medi-terranean. As a port, Melita became famous,and the number of ships which visited it soonbrought wealth and importance to its inhabit-ants. It }delded itself to the Carthaginians onthe decline of Tyre, and subsequently to theEomans ; but the old Phoenician languageremained in use, a circumstance which suffi-ciently accounts for the narrator of St. Paul'sshipwreck calling the inhabitants the barba-rians. Four inscriptions found in IMclita, inthe Phoenician character, are described byGesenius. The first is that which is found atthe bases of two candelabra, one of which ispreserved in the museum at Malta, and theother at Paris. They appear to have beenofferings presented to the Tyrian Hercules bytwo brothers. The second inscription was foundon a stone in a sepulchral cave in Malta, whichis described by sir William Drummond in anessay published in London in 1810. The stoneitself is now, in a mutilated shape, preserved inParis, and happily, three copies had been takenof the inscription before the stone was broken.The interpretation of it is difficult and am-biguous, but it has been explained by Geseniusto contain a statement that the sepulchre isthe inner chamber of the eternal house, (theinvisible Avorld,) that the cave is the resting-place of a pious man, that a spirit of slothful-ness is the mother of ignominyin contrast


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OF THE PHCENICIANS. 39possibly with the character of the departedand then follows the name Hannibal, son ofBarmelech. The name Hannibal was commonto many Carthaginians. The great leaderwho bore it and rendered it illustrious was sonof Hamilcar ; and between Hamilcar and Bar-melech there is so great a discrepancy that thisinscription cannot be supposed to mark theresting-place of the body of him who was theterror of the Romans.A third inscription Avas found in a field nearCitta Vecchia, the old capital of Malta, in theyear 1820. Gesenius interprets the words asdenoting a votive tablet erected to Baal of thesun, by a worshipper Avho acknowledges thatthe god has listened to his vows. Tlie fourthinscription was dug out at the place Avhere thethird was found, and is similar to it in formand character. It is, however, a gravestone,and the inscription is much mutilated.

Crete, the modern Candia, one of the largestislands of the Mediterranean, was colonized bythe Phoenicians. It is, according to DiodorusSiculus, the region from which Hercules setout on his expedition to Iberia, to make warupon the son of Chrysaor. This is reckonedby Diodorus as the tenth of Hercules' labours,and is most probably an allegorical relation ofthe outspread of the Phoenician people by tradeand navigation, and of the general civilizationwhich thence resulted. The destination of theexpedition was Spain, a countr}' abounding ingold, where Chrysaor, the golden one, the son


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40 THE COLONIES AND FOREIGN POSSESSIONSof Geryon, reigned. Hercules is said to havepassed from Crete through Africa, where heintroduced agriculture, and built the great cityof Hecatonipylos, which afterwards fell into thehands of the Carthaginians ; it was a considerabledistance in the interior of their territory. ThenceHercules travelled on along the strait, which atlength he crossed over to Gades. Spain was con-quered by him, and he carried aAvay the oxenof Geryon as booty, returning through Gaul,Italy, and the islands of Sicily and Sardinia.It is a very natural interpretation of these t)-a-ditions which passed from the Phoenicians tothe Greeks, to regard them as denoting thecourse of Phoenician colonization, and of thoseexpeditions which were not I'or destruction andconquest, but for civilization and trade. Cretealso stands connected with another fable ofPhoenician origin, the history of Europa. Themeaning of this it is impossible clearly toascertain, but the legend serves to show that ata very early period the Phffiuicians had inter-course with Crete.

In Sicily, the Phoenicians, long before therise of the Carthaginian power, had establishedpermanent and flourishing settlements. Thu-

cydides, in his sixth book, states that, " before'the Greeks emigrated into Sicily, the Phoinicianshad occupied the coasts of that island, and thesmaller ones in its neighbourhood ; but whenthe Greeks began to frequent it they retired toMotj'a, Soloes, and Panormus." These placesnamed by the historian were cities of Sicily


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OF THE PHCENICIANS. 41and strongholds of the Phoenicians in earlytimes. Afterwards, when the Romans con-tended for the dominion of the ishmd Avith theCarthaginians, the descendants and allies of thePhoenicians, Panormus, the modern Palermo,was taken, although with considerable difliculty.To the three towais already mentioned must beadded the mountain city of Eryx, where theworship of the Phoenician Astarte, or VenusErycina, a^ known to the Greeks, continued amonument of the presence of the Phoenicians.Gesenius has given a copy and explanation ofan inscription in the Phoenician character,found many years ago in the neighbourhood ofEryx. This monument itself has been lost, butthe copy of it is preserved to us. The inscrip-tion is of considerable length, having eight linesthe letters are distinct and perfect, and fromthem has been constructed the Phoenicianalphabet. The inscription celebrates thebeauty and excellence of a woman whose nameis recorded, and expresses the grief of the sur-vivor at her -removal. In digging for thefoundations of a roj'al gymnasium at Palermo,a vase was discovered, bearing on its sidePhoenician characters, denoting, it is supposed,a proper name. It is deposited in the museumof the gymnasium. Another inscription alsoAvas found at the city Marsala, in Sicily, mark-ing, by two or three words in the Phoeniciancharacter, the grave of a potter. These, how-ever, may not be relics of the ancient Phoe-nicians, but possibly of their descendants, theb2


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42 THE COLONIES AND FOREIGN POSSESSIONSCarthagiuiLins, who preserved tlie Phoeniciancharacter. They lead us back m reflection toa period far distant from modern times.

Sardinia was another island visited by theenterprising navigators from Tyre. They didnot, so far as we know, like the Carthaginians,their successors, take possession of the island,but contented themselves with maintainingsettlements on the coast. Of the cities theyfounded we have no distinct account, althoughthose which, even in the time of Cicero, flou-rished as Carthaginian colonies, may fairly beregarded as original settlements of the Phoe-nicians. The name Sardinia is said to havebeen derived from Sardus, a son of Hercules, ofwhom particular mention is made in the Tyrianlegends. Sardus is reported to have been theleader of a Libyan colony, Avho, at an earlyperiod, took up their abode in the island,which was valuable as producing abundanceof grain, and having rich mines in lead andsilver. About 1773, a stone was discovered inthe neighbourhood of the ancient city Nora,now Pula, in the southern part of the island ofSardinia. It was found in a vineyard belongingto a convent, and bears a Phoenician inscription,which has been differently interpreted accordingto the division of the letters of which it con-sists. The earlier interpretation given of it sup-poses it to mark the termination of the voyageof Sardus, son of Hercules, who is thought,after sailing for Tarshish, to have landed inSardinia, and to have erected the stone as a


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OF THE PHCENICIANS. 43memorial of the termination of his voyage.Gesenius, however, repudiates this interpre-tation, and by his division of tlie syllables theinscription is made to denote the grave orresting-place of a prince Avho was a father tohis country. The stone is in kind the samesandstone which is common in the neighbour-hood of the ancient Nora, but the inscriptionhas been mutilated on the left-hand side. Aprecious stone, from Sardinia, has also beenpreserved, on which are inscribed four Phoe-nician letters, giving probably the name of theperson to whom it belonged.On the coast of Africa, the Phoenicians hadextensive territories, and not mere tradingsettlements. The foundation of the colonies innorth Africa took place during the most flou-rishing period of Phoenician trade and power.

Of these, Utica, Carthage, and Leptis werethe earliest and most important settlements,being founded by emigrations from Tyre up-wards of five hundred years before Christ.Utica, however, claims the priority of Carthageby some considerable period, although the pre-cise difference in the era of the foundation ofthese cities it is impossible to determine.

; Leptis, Adrumetum, Hippo, and some othertowns, existed also prior to the foundation ofCarthage, but the means which had been takenfor the establishment of the last-mentionedcity, and the resources at the command of itsfounders, were so wisely and sufficiently pro-vided, that during the lifetime of Dido herself


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44 THE COLONIES AND FOREIGN POSSESSIONSthe colony of Carthage rose to an elevated andindependent position.The city was situated on a promontory con-

nected by a narrow isthmus with the mainland.,about fifteen miles from the present Tunis. Atthe extremity of the promontory towards thecontinent, on the narrowest j^art of the isthmus,was the fortress of Byrsa, including at its sum-mit the temple of j^sculapius, and surroundedby a triple wall. The walls of the city werein circumference about twenty miles. It wasbounded on the north and east by the ocean ;on the south by a great lake ; and on the westby a range of cliffs stretching across the isthmus,and traversed by narrow passages cut in therock. There was a harbour, probably on theeastern side, having an inner and an outerbasin ; the former was guarded with great carefrom the intrusion of any foreign ships, andwas occupied by vessels of war. The outerharbour had a double wall around it, sluicesto let the water in and out, and an entranceseventy feet in width, which, like the harbourof Tyre, was closed by drawing an iron chainacross it. All around the outer harbour werebroad quays for loading and unloading cargoes ;while round the inner harbour were store-houses and docks for the use of the ships ofwar. Within the fortifications of Byrsa werestables and magazines for the supply of threehundred elephants and four thousand horses,with accommodation for four thousand cavalryand twenty thousand foot soldiers. On the


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OF THE PHCENICIANS. 45northern side of the peninsula, called Megura,were situated the homes of the rich citizeusand successful merchants ; villas vying iu tasteand magnificence with those of our moderncities, separated from each other by verdantlawns, plantations, and cultivated gardens,where Carthaginian damsels exhibited the richembroideries and glowing colours of ancientTyre, or young Hannibals vowed, in mimicsport, hostility to the rising power of Eome.The population of Carthage in the full tide ofits prosperity is supposed to have reachedseven hundred thousand souls, a numberwhich must have exceeded that of the Phoeni-cian city of which she was the descendant,and for a short period the commercial suc-cessor.To pursue the fortunes of this mighty city inits contest with Rome would scarcely be appro-priate in a treatise on Tyre and the Phojni-cians ; yet it must not be foi-gotten that the skilland resources which enabled Hannibal for six-teen years to maintain, to the terror of theRomans, a firm position in Italy, sprang origi-nally from the coast of Phoenicia. The extentof territory subject to this chief of Phoeniciancolonies was not less than one thousand sixhundred geographical miles, nearly co-extensivewith thej^resent regejicy of _Tunis. The greatdistrict of Libya became a vast corn magazinefor Carthage, and the nomade tribes who dweltinland acted towards the Carthaginians thepart which the Arabs sustained in Asia towards


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46 THE COLONIES AND FOREIGN POSSESSIONSTyre, conductiug their caravans in their trademth the most distant regions.

Several interesting inscriptions in the ancientPhoenician language have been discovered inthe neighboui'hood of Carthage, and are de-scribed by Gesenins in the work alreadyalluded to. Four of them are connected Aviththe name of Humbert, by whom they Averediscovered at the village of Malga, the site ofancient Carthage. They were buried somethree or four feet in the ground. The first issupposed to be a votive stone erected to thesun and moon, by a noble Carthaginian, whoheld important office in the state, and theothers are somewhat of a similar character.In 1832, another stone of the same kind wasdiscovered in the same neighbourhood by theDanish consul at Tunis, and another with avery brief inscription is deposited in themuseum at Lyons. One, also, dug out byHumbert from the ruins of Carthage, was sentby him to Belgium, but was lost. Two grave-stones, also from the same spot, contain Phoeni-cian inscriptions to the memory of those whosebodies once reposed beneath them, and thenames of these Carthaginians are thus pre-sei'ved to modern times.

Under the head of Punico-Numidian, Gese-nius arranges those inscriptions in the Phoeni-cian language vrhich have been discoveredpartly in the Carthaginian and partly in theNumidian territorj^, the writing of which is not80 graceful and complete as that of other PhcE-


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OP TUE rilCENICIANS. 47nician inscriptions. The territory of Numidiawas colonized by Phoenicians, but does notappear to have become -wholly subject to them,as the kings of Nmnidia, who resided at Hippo,were sometimes allies, and at other timesdependents of the Carthaginian state. Thecity Thugga was in the district of Numidia, notfar from the river Bagradas, about two days'journey from Tunis. At this city, sir Gren-ville Temple, in his Excursions in the Mediter-ranean, describes an ancient mausoleum assubsisting, of great beauty and antiquity. " Itstands in the centre of an olive grove, a littlebeyond the boundaries of the town, and to thesouth of the village. It measures at presentforty-one feet in height, but was originally muchloftier, and at the base it is twenty-eight feetseven inches square. It consists of two stones,and a part of the third, the lower of which con-tains four double rooms or receptacles for thebodies, and has two entrances, one at the north,the other iit the east, which were closed by asort of portcullis or stone working up and downin a groove. The second story has two roomsand one entrance, closed in the same manner asthe lower ones ; and above this rose either adome or a pyramidical succession of steps,crowned by a statue or some other ornament.On the eastern face are two inscriptions, theone Punic, and the other in characters unknownto me. They do not seem to have been cut atthe same period in which the mausoleum itselfwas erected, and have probably no relation to


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48 THE COLONIES AND FOREIGN POSSESSIONSthe person to Avliom it was raised ; the oneinscription appears to be a translation of tlieother." These inscriptions are deciphered asbeing the one in the Plioenician, and the otherin the Libyan language. The first part of theinscription contains the genealogy of the per-sonage buried in the mausoleum, and enume-rates seven of his ancestors, among Avhom aretwo kings and one prince ; the other part is aneulogy of his character, and the monument waserected by a son to the memory of his deceasedparent. Bilinguar inscriptions are very valu-able as furnishing an opportunity to learnedantiquarians of comparing the known with theunknown in the forms of various alphabets ; andGesenius has accordingly employed this iuscription to discover and illustrate something of thenature of the ancient Libyan language, and itscombination with the Phoenician.

There are four other Numidian inscriptions,found nearly in the same neighbourhood as thebilinguar one of Thugga ; they relate to thefamily of Hiempsal, king of Numidia. Thefirst was found in a small hovel, waS describedby sir Grenville Temple, and is deposited inthe museum of the Asiatic Society of London.The stone is a votive offering to Baal, made byHiempsal, king of the Massyli, in return for asupposed answer to his prayers in the abun-dant ffrtilify of his fields. The Massjdi werethe ancient inhabitants of Numidia in the east.The second inscription is on a stone of greatweight and size, and is another acknovvledg-


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OP THE PHCENICIANS. 49ment to Baal by Hiempsal, son of rlie pre-ceding. The third, which is deposited atLyons, was erected by two persons to thehonour of Baal. They were of the family ofHiempsal, and occupied high stations. Thereis on the monument a figure of a cow, the signof agricultural prosperity ; and this is also avotive offering for the fertility of the soil. Thefourth is of the same kind and to the samepurpose, but has with it a, representation ofthe worshipper who erects it. In the vaults ofthe British ]\[useum for a long while wasdeposited a Numidian monument, bearing aPhojnician inscription, Vi^hich Gesenius de-ciphers to be a votive offering to Baal byAdrichenus, a king of Numidia, in return for avictory which his people had gained over theRomans. There are other Numidian inscrip-tions, but from those already mentioned thereader can obtain an idea of their generalcharacter.Badia, a learned Spaniard and traveller inthe east, in the year 1803 discovered andbrought to light a remarkable biiinguar inscrip-tion in a triumphal arch built by the Romansat Tripoli, and standing at that time near thehouse of the French consul. The Avhole monu-ment was constructed of enormous stones,without mortar or cement, and Avas coveredwith sculptures within and without. Thegreater part of these had been destroyed, butenough remained, though in a fragmentarystate to show the beauty and antiquity of the


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OF THE PHCENICIANS, 51cities from which they arose, and which formeda confederacy along the coast of Phoenicia. Thatthey were wholly independent of one another isnot probable ; at the same time, the amount ofrelative subjection is not by any means clearlydefined. They appear to have existed in anamicable union, rather than under any clearlyconstituted general government. A strip ofcoast, comprising the central portion of thenorthern shore of Africa, was covered with achain of cities, of wiiich Utica was the mostancient, but over which Carthage speedily pre-dominated. It became amongst them a secondTyre, and was overtaken by a destruction verysimilar to that which befel its Phoenician an-cestor. The pride and self-confidence of theAsiatic Tyre descended to the African Carthage,and the devastations Avrought by Nebuchad-nezzar and Alexander were imitated by therelentless Romans.The peninsula of Spain formed one of the

chief colonial countries of the Phoenicians, andwas the object of their navigation and the chiefseat of their commerce. The part of the countryoccupied by them was that which is situated inthe southern part of Andalusia, on both sidesthe strait, from the mouth of the Guadiana, atboth sides of the Guadalquivir, to the frontiersof Granada, and even Muroia. The originalinhabitants of this district Avere the Turdetani,but from the mingling of the Phoenicians withthe natives arose a mixed race, known as thefBastuli. In this district were the cities Tartessus,


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52 THE COLONIES AND FOREIGN POSSESSIONSJCarteia, and Gades ; and liereabouts must befound the far-famed Pillars of liercules. Thesehave been sought at Gibraltar, near Gades, andeven elsewhere, but locality decides the questionin favour of the rocks Calpe and Abyla, whereGibraltar on the European, and Ceuta on theAfrican coast, now stand. With regard toTarshish, there has been much difficulty indetermining its exact position. This has arisenprincipally from the mention which is made ofit in the second book of the Chronicles, inwhich it is recorded that Jehoshaphat, king ofJudah, joined with Ahaziah, king of Israel, "tomake ships to go to Tarshish, and they madethe ships in Eziongeber," that is, on the ElaniticGulf, on the eastern arm of the Eed Sea. Thislanguage implies certainly that thei'e "was aTarshish from which Eziongeber was a suitableport to sail ; and if so, unless we supposethe vessels in every voyage to have circum-navigated Africa, Tarshish must have been inthe east, and not on the coast of Spain. In thepassage, however, in the book of Kings, thevessels are described, not as sailing for Tarshish,but as ships of Tarshish sailing for Opliir.This removes all difliculty, for Ophir was inthe east ; and by the expression, ships ofTarshish, is clearly meant ships of a certainsize and biuld, such as those Avhich traded toTarshish. The probability appears then to be,that in the passage in the Chronicles we havean error in the transcription, and that theexpression should be, ships of Tarshish, as in


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OF THE PHOENICIANS. 53the book of the Kings. If an error in transcrip-tion be not adniitted, then must there havebeen a Tarshish in the east as well as one inthe west. That a Tarshish did exist, accessiblefrom the Mediterranean, and not by the RedSea, is clear from the passages of Scripture inwhich the place is referred to. In the book ofJonah, for instance, the prophet, instead ofgoing to Nineveh to prophesy against it, fleesin a contrary direction, and takes ship at Joppafor Tarshish. It is plain, then, that Tarshishwas in a direction from Jerusalem contrary toNineveh, and that it was accessible by shipfrom Joppa. Here, and elsewhere, the descrip-tion answers to Tarshish, or Tartessus, in Spain,to which for so many years the Phceniciansconducted their trafiic. There was a riverTartessus, an island Tartessus, and a placebearing the same name. Indeed, the termappears to have been applied to denote a dis-trict of which those who employed it had onlyvague and uncertain knowledge, though, asused by the Phosnicians, it denoted the tract insouthern Spain which they had visited andcolonized. The river Tartessus was the Gua-dalquivir, which by flowing into the sea in twostreams forms an island, where the Phoenicians,in conformity with their usual practice, had auearly settlement ; the city and island possiblybearing the name of Tartessus, which graduallyextended itself to the surrounding district.The city Gades was another island settlementof the Phoenicians, whose rule appears to have


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54 THE COLONIES AND FOREIGN POSSESSIONSbeen to choose islands at a short distance fromthe continent for their settlements, as being themost secure deposits for their merchandise, andplaces from which it could be easily transported.At a short distance from the coast, and beyondthe Pillars of Hercules, were situated two smallislands in the Atlantic Ocean. The largest wasabout nine miles in circumference ; and on thisremote part of the known world, beyond whichnothing could be seen, except the immeasurablewaste of ocean, the Phojnicians built their city.Gades was the name of the largest island andalso of the town, and Erythea of the smallerisland, which was considered a great favouritewith Juno, and was remarkable for its fertility.At the extremity of the larger island, towardsthe north, was a renowned temple in honour ofthe Tyrian Hercules, who is supposed at thispoint to have reached the limit of his expe-dition, and to have defeated Geryon who ruledover the island.

Carteia was a third Phoenician city, some-where in the neighbourhood of the presentGibraltar. It may have been below Algeziras,at the very extremity of the strait, and it ismuch disputed whether it is to be identifiedwith Calpe. Malaca and Hispalis w^ere othercities ithe former, the present Malaga, exportedlarge quantities of excellent salt fish ; the latter,Seville, was built on the Guadalquivir at apoint to which the tide came up, and Vvhere itwas navigable for ships of burden. Thesewere the principal cities, but the Avhole country


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OF THE PIICENICIANS. 55was peopled by PhcEnician colonists. Straboaffirms that there Avere above two hundredplaces of Phoenician origin, Gades is said tohave been founded about the same time asUtica, at least a thousand years before Christ.It became the chief of smaller colonies along thecoast, and the head of a confederacy similar tothose which existed at Tyre and on the northerncoast of Africa.Beyond the Pillars of Hercules, the settle-ments of the Phoenicians appear iincertain, andare attended with great obscurity. Straboindeed mentions that there existed three hun^dred cities, which were founded by Tyre on thewestern coast of Africa, and which afterwardswere laid waste by the rude Gcetuli and theLibyans. Diodorus Siculus also hands downto us a tradition respecting a very large islandbeyond the Pillars of Hercules which was takenpossession of by the Phoenicians. This islandis clearly Madeira, which must have beenvisited by these enterprising navigators, andformed the seat of settlements, the names andhistories of which have not come down to us.The Carthaginians, who followed in the track oftheir ancestors, fitted out two grand expeditionsfor planting colonies and pushing onwards geo-graphical discoveries ; one of these, conductedby Hanno, for the western coasts of Africa ; andthe other, under Himilco, for those of Europe.They founded colonies beyond the Pillars ofHercules along the shores of Spain, independ-ently of those which had been previously


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56 THE COLONIES AND FOUEIGN POSSESSIONSplanted by the Phoenicians. liimiico, after fourmonths' sail, reached the Insulte Q^strymnides,islands lying close to the shores of Albion, andwithin two days' sail of Ireland. Between theseislands and the mainland, communication waskept up by means of boats made of leather.*With regard to the locality denoted by theQCstrymnides, probability points to St. Michael'sMount in Cornwall as being the spot. Here tinis obtained in two ways, by stream works andby mining. The stream works are horizontalexcavations, open to the surface of the earth,from which the tin is extracted by washing.In the bay in which St. Michael's IMount issituated are traces of other islands, and of alarger extent of land which has been submerged.Diodorus mentions that " the inhabitants of theBritish continent were very skilful in obtainingthe tin, which they afterwards conveyed to asmall island, called Fetis, accessible from theshore, dryshod, when the tide is out." Allthese statements point to St. Michael's Mountand its neighbourhood as the locality described ;and here, as in so many other instances, weagain meet with the old Phoenician custom ofchoosing an island near the shore as the empo-rium for their commerce. The ancient inha-bitants of Cornwall, we may therefore fairly

* Boats made of wicker-work, covered with oil-cloth or lea-ther, named coracles, are still well-known in Wales. They areso light that a fisherman can carry them by a strap on hisback. Usually they are made to hold only one person, andare not nmch bigger than a larjre basket. Occasionally, how-ever, such boats are built of a larger form, and made capableQf conveying five or si-x nersons.


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58 THE TRADE CARRIED ON

CHAPTEE IV.ON THE TRADE CARRIED ON BY THE PHCENICIANS BOTHBY SEA AND LAND.In the commencement of his history, Herodotus,Avho wrote B.C. 445, gives an account of thehostilities -which subsisted between the Greeksand the barbarians, and endeavours to tracethem to their cause. This cause he considersto be the expeditious of the Phoenicians intoGreece, in -which, on more than one occasion,they carried off kings' daughters and personsof importance, after having disposed of theirvarious articles of commerce. The Greeksretaliated by similar marauding and pii^aticalexpeditions, and hence originated, according to" the father of history," as he is commonlycalled, the violent hatred between the twoparties. The same representation of the con-clusion of Phoenician trafficking is given in thefifteenth book of Homer's Odyssey, in whichEumseus relates to Ulysses the adventuresthrough which he has passed, explaining thathe Avas son of a king, and had been carried oifwhen a child by Phoenician sailors, when


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BY THE PHCENICIANS. 59" Freighted, it seems, with toys of every sort,A ship of Zidon anchored in our port."

It is possible that the early voyagers from Tyreand Zidon Avere of this character, and that underthe pretext of trade opportunity was oftentaken for plundering the weak and defenceless,until the successful navigators were restrainedby the superior benefits of trade or the presenceof rival fleets. They were, in the infancy oftheir navigation, either robbers or merchants ascircumstances might guide them, exposing atports, seldom visited by strangers, trinkets,beads, and baubles, and kidnapping boys andgirls to be disposed of in the Asiatic slavemarkets, or to be redeemed by heavy ransomsfrom their parents and friends. Such proceed-ings are in harmony with the history given inthe book of Genesis of the sale of Joseph to theMidianitish merchants, who did not exhibit un-willingness to purchase the Hebrew slave, orsolicitude to examine the title to possession ofthose Avho sold him.

Whatever unwillingness to mutual trafficmight subsist between the Greeks and thePha3nicians, there were some things in whichthe latter had a decided advantage over theformer, and in regard to which, if the Greeksobtained them at all, they must purchase themof the Phcenicians. Such were the perfumesand spices brought from Arabia, so plentifullyemployed by the Greeks in the sacrificesto their gods, and which could only be pur-chased of Phoenician merchants. There were


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60 THE TKADE CARRIED ONalso the manufactures of Tyre, its purple gar-ments, its rich apparel, its jewels, trinkets, andornaments, all of which were superior in tasteand workmanship, and were objects desired andprized among the Greeks. Many of the pro-ductions of Asia would find their way intoGreece by means of the colonies established inAsia Minor, Avhich exported the same kind ofmerchandise as the ships of Tyre, and wererivals with the Phoenicians in their easterncommerce.

In the extensive colonies of Tyre and itsadjacent cities, are to be found the principalsources of its trade. Sales effected with otherpurchasers were by retail and in very smallquantities, but in this direction the mutualexchange of commodities was on the mostextensive and profitable scale, and for a longtime formed an uninterrupted source of wealthand prosperity. During the time of Phoeniciauprosperity, the establishments upon the greatislands of the Mediterranean Sea were regardedas stations for the distant voyages into Spainthe Spanish being the largest and most lucra-tive branch of Phoenician commerce, Spainwas the richest country then known for silver,and abounded in gold, as well as in metals ofless value. The most productive portion of herterritory was that known to the Phoenicians bythe general name of Tarshish. On the arrivalof Phoenician vessels at this country, they foundsilver in such plenty that they laded theirvessels Avith it to the water's edge, made their


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BY THE PHCENICIANS. Glcommon utensils and even the anchors of theirships of this metal, and returned back to theirnative country, to astonish their friends andneighbours by the history of their profitableadventures and the specimens of the treasuresthey had discovered. Spain became then toTyre what Peru has been since to Spain andEurope, and what more recently California hasbeen to America.The mine works of the Phoenicians wereconfined to the present Andalusia. The oldest,according to the testimony of Strabo, wereupon the mountain in which the Guadalquivirrises, upon the south part of the Sierra Morena.It was easy from the position of these mines totransport their produce by water-carriage tothe sea, thence to be conveyed in Phoenicianvessels from the ports. When Spain was over-come by the Carthaginians, the extent of mining-territory was greatly enlarged. The mountainin which the mines were at first principallysituated was called " the Silver Mountain," andsilver was the main produce. Gold, lead, andiron, were discovered afterwards, and tin minesalso were opened on the northern coast ofSpain, beyond Lusitania. In different parts ofthe world, the relative value of the preciousmetals was very different, so much so that inArabia Felix silver was tenfold the price ofgold. Of this difference in value the Phoeni-cians, from the extent of their traffic, were ableto take large advantage.

The commerce was carried on by barter. On


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62 THE TRADE CARRIED ONtlie part of the Phoenicians, Tyrian wares,linen, toys, trinkets, and such common andattractive articles as their manufactures sup-pHed, Averc exchanged for silver and the pro-duce of the southern part of Spain, consisting ofcorn, oil, wine, Avax, fine wool, and rich fruits.The modern Cadiz and ancient Gades wastheir station for the Spanish trade, and also thestarting-point for distant navigation and com-merce, of which, from the extraordinary carewith which it was concealed, we can know butlittle. It is certain that the British Isles andthose of the Cas&iterides, the Scilly Isles, Averevisited by them for tin, and the coast of Prussiafor amber. It is probable that they proceededfrom Gades to Madeira and the Canary Islands,perhaps to the gold coast beyond the Senegal,as did the Carthaginians in subsequent voyages.Besides the fixed and regular course of theirti'affic, they were in the habit of fitting outexpeditions for the purpose of discovery, bywhich they often extended their commerce, orat least the amount of their geographical know-ledge. Herodotus has given us an account ofsome of these voyages, and it is reasonable tosupjiose that many more were undertaken, andsuccessfully accomplished, of which no noticehas come down to us. In one of these voyages,which they undertook at a very early period,they discovered the isle of Thasos, proverbialfor its fertility, and rich in gold mines, whichthe Phoenicians industriously worked untildriven from the island by the Greeks. A still


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BY THE PHCENICIAKS. G3more wonderful expedition is thus narrated byHerodotus, in the fourth book of his History,respecting their circumnavigation of Africa." That Africa," remarks the historian, " is sur-rounded by the sea, except where it borders onAsia, Necho, king of the Egyptians, was thefirst we know of to demonstrate. That princehaving finished his excavations for the canalleading out of the Nile into the Arabian Gulf,despatched certain natives of Phcenicia on ship-board with orders to sail back through thePillars of Hercules into the north, (that is, theMediterranean Sea,) and so to return to Egypt.The Phoenicians consequently having departedout of the Erythrsean Sea, proceeded on theirvoyage in the southern sea ; when it wasautumn they would push ashore, and sowingthe land whatever might be the part of Libyathey had reached, await there till the harvesttime ; having reaped their corn they continuedtheir voyage ; thus, after the lapse of two years,and passing through the Pillars of Hercules inthe third, they came back into Egypt, andstated Avhat is not credible to me, but may beso perhaps to others, namely, that in their cir-cumnavigation of Libya they had the sun onthe right hand, (that is, on the north.)"'The story thus detailed by Herodotus isliable to so few objections as to its truth, and isso strongly supported by internal evidence, thatalthough some writers have attempted to impugnits accuracy, it must be admitted, we think, tobe authentic. Pharaoh-Necho had already


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G4 THE TRADE CARRIED ONliuilt fleets on the Mediterranean and Red Seas,and had attempted to unite them with a canal,so as to make Africa an island. It would bemost natural for him to desire knowledge on theform and size of this continent. The desolationof Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar, which followedafter this event, is sufHcient to account for thefact that the voyage was not followed up bysubsequent enterprises. The shortness, too, ofthe time -alleged to have been spent, althoughan objection to some minds, must be estimatedin connexion with the skill which the Phanii-cians had acquired by continued practice insuch coasting expeditions. Moreover, they werenot by any means unacquainted with the coaststhey had to traverse, and the difficulties of cir-cumnavigating Africa are not really so great instarting from the Arabian Gulf as from theMediterranean Sea. The regular winds and,what is of more importance, the currents are allin favour of the navigators, from the time ofclearing the Arabian Gulf to that of theirarrival on the coast of Guinea. They must byobservation have previousl}'^ acquired a know-ledge of seed-time and harvest in these hotregions. In Africa, the harvest follows the seed-time in three months at least, a time not morethan sufficient to repair their vessels, afford restto their crew, recruit the health of the sick, andlay in the necessary stock of provisions fortheir voyage. The circumstance mentioned byHerodotus, and which he finds it so difficult tocredit, that they had the sun on their right


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BY THE PIICENICIANS. 65hand, is one of the strongest proofs of authen-ticity in the narrative, for it is that which noimpostor would introduce or imagine, and yetit is that which must have actually occurredto them in the circumnavigation of Africa.Omitting, however, these distant voyages, theregular navigation of the Phcenicians in thisearly age is truly wonderful.

In their regular intercourse with Spain, thePhoenicians found in the island of Sicily a har-bour to which they might run in case oftempest or accident ; and in which, also, untildispossessed by the Greeks, they carried on alucrative and extensive trade. Along the coastof Africa was a line of commercial establish-ments, which may in the first instance havebeen intended for the preservation and assist-ance of the Spanish trade, but which rapidlydrew to them the commerce of inner Africa, andbecame in themselves valuable on this account.Constant traffic was also carried on betweenPhoenicia and the shores of the Arabian andPersian Gulfs, where settlements had beenestablished and secure harbours obtained forthe protection of the navigation. Yet for theundisturbed continuance of this last trafiic,which extended so far beyond the boundariesof their own territory, the Phoenicians weredependent upon the maintenance of friendlyrelations Avith the powerful nations who exer-cised dominion over these coasts. For thenavigation of the Arabian Gulf they wereindebted to the Jews, and to the alliance which


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60 THE TRADE CARRIED ONsubsisted betweeu them and this nation underthe reigus of David and Solomon. In the timeof the hitter prince, commerce was carried onby them with Ophir. It proceeded from theports of Ekith and Ezion Geber, situated at thetermination of the ^lanitic Gulf of the lied Sea.These ports originally belonged to the Idu-niseans, and on their conquest by the Jews theirseaports passed under the dominion of the con-queror, together with the lucrative trade whichwas attached to them. This the Jews were notin a condition to carry on alone, and theirallies the Phoenicians, who were experiencedtraders, did not allow the favourable opportunityto escape, but shared it with them in such amanner as to be profitable to both parties.Upon this trade to Ophir very much has beenwritten, without anything being concludedwith absolute certainty as to the situation of theplace. It has been found in Ceylon, in Ara-bia Felix, and even on the eastern coast ofAfrica.The name Ophir occurs in the first instanceas the proper name of one of the thirteen sonsof Joktan, the son of Eber, a great grandson ofShem. Many Arabian countries are believedto have been peopled by these sous of Joktan,and to have been called after their names, andthis is spoken of as a presumptive proof thatOphir is to be found in Arabia, although it ispossible that it is mentioned in that connexionot\ account of its being an Arabian colonyplanted abroad. Though gold, for whicli 0[>hir


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BY THE PHCENICIANS. 67was particularly famous, is not now found in^irabia, yet by the ancients it was ascribed tothe land in great plenty, and the gold ofHavilah, which is mentioned in the secondchapter of the book of Genesis, is thought tohave been an Arabian production. Some sup-pose that although Opliir was situated inArabia, it was rather a storehouse where theproductions of a more distant country weredeposited than the locality where they wereoriginally found, and they have identified itaccordingly with the Arabian port Aphar. Infavour, on the other hand, of the opinion whichplaces Ophir in Africa, it has been allegedthat the name Africa itself suggests the identityof the places, and that the extraordinary voyageof the Phoinicians and Egyptians in the circum-navigation of the continent harmonizes withthe supposition. By other writers the nature ofthe productions brought by the traders fromOphir, as well as the testimony of the Septua-gint and Josephus, have been appealed to infavoxir of India a

Tyre Rise and Glory

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