have previously occasioned the strong affection of Hi- ram for David (1 Kings v, 1). However this may be, it is evident that under Solomon there was a close alli- ance between the Hebrews and the Tyrians. Hiram supplied Solomon with cedar-wood, preci((us metals, and workmen, and gave him sailors for the voyage to Ophir and India; while, on the other hand, Solomon gave Hiram supplies of corn and oil, ceded to him some cities, and permitted him to make use of some havens on the Red Sea (ix, 11-14, 26-28: x, 22). Under Hi- ram, Tyre not only attained to its fidlest glory and re- nown among its sister-states, but the capital it.self, en- larged by him into three distinct towns, received its fullest share of palaces, temples, and jniblic edifices, and its two roadsteads and two harbors probably date from this period. It is at this period also when the joint trading expeditions to Ophir are recorded to have taken place, in which the T\-rians furnished the pilots and mariners. Hiram himself seems altogether to have been a very refined, pious, and peaceful monarch. Hard- ly au)- wars are recorded during his lifetime, and his re- ported interchange of problems with the "wisest of mankind" points to his renown as a bel esprit. These friendly relations survived for a time the disastrous se- cession of the ten tribes, and a century later Ahab married a daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidoni- ans (xvi, 31), who, according to Menander (Josephus, Anf. viii, 13, 2), was a daugliter of Ithobaal, king of Tyre.
3. Hiram was followed, according to Menander (in Josephus) and Tlieophilus, by Baleastartus, whose four sons reigned after him for short periods. First came Abdastartus (939-931), who, in consequence of a palace revolution, was followed on the throne for twelve years by a son of his nurse — a period of internal sedition and general lawlessness having intervened, during which (so Justin tells us) all the free citizens of Tyre were, mur- dered by the slaves. Astartus, the eldest son of Baleas- tartus, succeeded to the government, and ruled from 918 to 907, when a third brother, Astarymus, was made king. He was murdered nine years later by Phaletus, his youngest brother, who, after a brief reign of nine months, was put to death by Ithobaal, priest of Astarte, in whose family the kingdom henceforth became he- reditary. This Ithobaal, the Etlibaal of Scripture, whose daughter was married to Ahab, is called by Josephus "king of Tyre and Sidon," a sign of the supremacy which Tyre had acquired in his day. The drought re- ported to have taken place in Judiea under Ahab seems to have also touched Plianicia, and such was Ithobaal's piety that at his supplication thunder-claps were heard, followed by copious rains. It was chiefly before his reign (898-806) that Tyre commenced to spread its colo- nies as far as Africa. S|iain, etc. — owing, in the first in- stance, probably to the danger of life and uncertainty of circumstances into which the country had been plunged by the internal conflicts. But Ithobaal himself seems to have encouraged colonization, and, in order to pre- vent the overcrowding of the old cities, to have built a number of new cities. Balezor, his son, succeeded in 865, and was followed by his son Mutton, the office of high-priest devolving on his second son, Sicharbaal. IMutton died in 833, and left two children, Elissa (Dido) and Pygmalion, who were to share the kingdom be- tween them, while lilissa, by her marriage with Sichar- liaal, was to unite the high-priesthood with the crown. To this arrangement, however, the people, averse to the supreme priestly power, demurred, and Pygmalion was declared sole king. Elissa's husband having been killed, for the sake of his treasures, by the new king, and herself being deprived of her dominion, she is .said to have entered into a conspiracy with the aristocratic party, and, in the ninth year of Pygmalion's reign, as- sisted and followed by her brother Barca and the prin- cipal families of the land, to have reached Carthage (New Town, XiT^n "^p), a colony founded some time
TYRE
616.
TYRE
before by the Sidoniaiis (about 15.C. 813), and to have coin[)letely rebuilt it and laid the foLnidation for a power ■which contended witii niiglity Kome for the empire of tlie world.
4. The political existence of Palestine, Syria, and Phojnicia, which, instead of niakint; a joint desperate stand, kept on intriguing' and jilotting against each oth- er— Phoenicia, moreover, being hated and despised by her allies for her iniquitous trade in slaves kidnajiped among her neighbors, chielly in Judaja — was hence- forth doomed. From this time commenced denuncia- tions, and, at first, threats of retaliation (Joel iii, 4-8; Amos i, 9, 10); and, indeed, tliough there might be peace, there could not be sincere frienilship between the two nations. But the likelihood of the denunciations being fulfilled first arose from the progressive conquests of the Assyrian monarchs. It was not probable that a powerful, victorious, and ambitious neighbor could re- sist the temptation of endeavoring to subjugate the small strip of laud between the Lebanon and the sea, so insignificant in extent, but overfiowing with so much wealth, which by the (ireeks was called Phoenicia. Ac- cordingly, when the king of Assyria had taken the city of Samaria, had conquered the kingdom of Israel and carried its inhabitants into captivity, he turned his arms against the Phcenician cities. At this time Tyre had reached a high point of prosperity. It pos- sessed the island of Cyprus, with the valuable mines of the metal '-copper" (so named from the island), and ap- parently the city of Sidon was subject to its sway. But the Assyrian king seems to have taken advantage of a re- volt of the Cyprians; and what ensued is thus related by Jlenander, who translated the archives of Tyre into the Greek language (see Joscphus, Aiit. ix, 14. 2) : "p]lul;Bus reigned thirty-six years (over Tyre). This king, upon the revolt of the Kitt;eans (Cyprians), sailed with a fieetj against them, and reduced them to submission. On the other, hand, the king of the Assyrians attacked in war the whole of Phoenicia, but soon made peace with all, and turned back. On this, Sidon and Ace (i. e. Akko or Acre) and Pahetyrus revolted from the Tyr- ians, with many other cities which delivered themselves up to the king of Assyria. Accordingly, wlien the Tyr- ians would not submit to him, the king returned and fell upon them again, the Phoenicians having furnished him with sixty ships and eight hundred rowers. Against these the Tyrians sailed with twelve ships, and, dispers- ing the fleet opposed to them, they took five hundred men prisoners. The reputation of all the citizens in Tyre was hence increased. Upon this the king of-,the Assyrians, moving off his armj', placed guards at their river and aqueducts to prevent the Tyrians from draw- ing water. This continued for five years, and still the Tyrians held out, supplying themselves with water from wells." But there can hardly be a doubt that T\-re, as well as the whole of Phrenicia, very soon was made tributary to Assyria, like all the neighboring countries, and the calamities brought upon them all alike by the uninterrupted war expeditious of the Assyrian mon- archs could not but be felt also by the dependencies and colonies. These fell more or less about this time into the hands of new settlers, from whom again Carthage, somewhat later, wrested a part for herself.