probably also copper from Cyprus, and tin from Spain or Cornwall (Niebuhr, Led. on Anc. Hist, i, 79), for the brass which was so higlily valued, purple from Tyre it- self, workmen from among the Zidonians — all these were wanted and were given. The opening of Joppa as a port created a new coasting -trade, and the materials from Tyre were conveyed to it on tloats, and thence to Jerusalem (2 Chron. ii, 1(5). The chief architect of the Tem|)le, though an Israelite on his mother's side, belong- ing to the tribe of Dan or Naphtali [see Hikam], was yet by birth a Tyrian, a namesake of the king. In re- turn for these exports, the Phwnicians were only too glad to receive the corn and oil of Solomon's territory-. Their narrow strip of coast did not produce enough for the population of their cities, and then, as at a later period, " their country was nourished" by the broad val- leys and plains of Samaria and Galilee (Acts xii, 20).
The residts of the alliance did not end here. Now, for the first time in the history of the Israelites, they entered on a career as a commercial people. They joined the Phoenicians in their IMediterranean voyages to (he coasts of Spain. See Tarshish. Solomon's possession of the Edomitish coast enabled him to open to his ally a new world of commerce. The ports of Elath and Ezion- geber were filled with ships of Tarshish, i. e. merchant- shi|)S, for the long voyages, manned chiefly by Phoe- nicians, but built at Solomon's expense, wliich sailed down the ^lanitic (iulf of the Ked Sea, on through the Indian Ocean, to lands which had before been hardly known even by name, to Ophir and Sheba, to Arabia Felix, or India, or Ceylon; and brought back, after an absence of nearly three years, treasures almost or alto- gether new — gold and silver and precious stones, nard, aloes, sandal- wood, almug-trees, and ivory; and last, but not least in the eyes of the historian, new forms of animal life, on which the inhabitants of Palestine gazed with wondering eyes, " apes and peacocks." The in- terest of Solomon in these enterprises was shown by his leaving his palaces at Jerusalem and elsewhere and travelling to Elath and Ezion-geber to superintend the construction of the fleet (2 Chron. viii, 17); perhaps also to Sidon for a like purpose. (The statement of Justin Slartyr [Dial. c. Tryph. c. 34], tv liCwvi ti'So)- XoXciTpei, receives by the accompanying Sid yvvaiKa the character of an extract from some history then ex- tant. The marriage of Solomon with a daughter of the king of Tyre is mentioned by Eusebius [Pi-ap. Evavg. X, 11].) To the knowledge thus gained we may ascribe the wider thoughts which appear in the psalms of this and the following periods, as of those who "see the wonders of the deep and occupy their business in great waters" (Psa. cvii, 23-30); perhaps also as an expe- rience of the more humiliating accidents of sea-travel (Prov. xxiii, 34, 35). (See the monographs De Navig. jSalom. by Wichmannshausen [Viteb. 1709], Huetius [in Ugolino, vol. vii], Kdnigsmann [Slesv. 1800], and Keill [in Germ.] [Dorp. 1834J.)
According to the statement of the Phoenician writers quoted by Josephus (Anf. viii, 5, 3), the intercourse of the two kings had in it also something of the sportive- ness and freedom of friends. They delighted to perplex each other with hard questions, and laid wagers as to their power of answering them. Hiram was at first the loser and paid his forfeits; but afterwards, through the help of a sharp-witted Tyrian boy, Abdemon, he solved the hard problems, and was in the end the winner. (The narrative of Josephus implies the existence of some story, more or less humorous, in Tynan literature, in which the wisest of the kings of earth was battled by a boy's cleverness. A singular pendant to this is found in the popular mediieval story of Solomon and Morolf, in which the latter [an ugly, deformed dwarf] outwits the former. A modernized version of this work may be found in the Walhulld [Leipsic, 1844], Older cop- ies, in Latin and (Jerman, of the 15th century, are in the British Museum Library. The Anglo-Saxon Dia- logue of Solomon and Saturn is a mere catechism of
SOLOMON
8G6
SOLOMON
scriptural knowlc.lfrc.) The singular fragment of his- | mighty ones of the earth. Cities like Taflmor and torv inserted in 1 Kings ix, 1 1-14, reconling the cessi.m , 'riphsah were not likely to have been founded hy a king bv Solomon of sixteen cities, and Hiram's dissatisfaction wlio had never seen and chosen the sites. 2 Chron. viii,
w'ith them, is perhaps connected witli these imperial wagers. Tiie king of Tyre revenges himself by a Phoe- nician lH>nmot. .S..0 (.'Aiiii- lie fulfils his part of the contract, ami pays the stipulated price.
3. These were the two most important alliances. The absence of any reference to Hahylon and Assyria, and the fact that tlie Kuphrates was recognised as the boun- dary of .Sdom.in's kingdom ('2 Chron. ix, 26), suggest theinference that the Mesopotamian monarchies were at this time comparatively feeble. Oilier neighboring
3, 4, implies the journey which J(>se|ihus speaks of (.4 nf, viii, t), 1), and at Tadinor Solomon was within one day's journey of the Euphrates, and six of Babylon. (So Josejihus, luc, cit.; but the day's journey must have been a long one.) Wherever the ships of Tarshish went, they carried with them the report, losing nothing ill its passage, of what their crews had seen and heard. The impression made on the Incas of Peru by the power and knowledge of the Spaniards offers perhaps the near- est aiiproach to what falls so little within the limits of