7. During the Persian domination the Tyrians were subject in name to the Persian king, and may have given him tribute. With the rest of Phoenicia, they had sub- mitted to the Persians without striking a blow ; perhaps tlirough hatred of the Chaldees, perhaps solely from prudential motives. But their connection with the Per- sian king was not slavish. Thus, when Cambyses or- dered them to join in an expedition against Carthage, they refused compliance, on account of their solemn en- gagements and parental relation to that colony ; and Cambyses did not deem it right to use force towards them (Herod, iii, 19). Afterwards they fought with Per- sia against Greece, and furnished vessels of war in the expedition of Xerxes against Greece (ibid, vii, 98); and Mapen, the son of Sirom the Tyrian, is mentioned among those who, next to the commanders, were the most renowned in the fleet. It is wortliy of notice that at this time Tyre seems to have been inferior in power to Sidon. These two cities were less than twenty Eng- lish miles distant froiu each other; and it is easy to
TYRE
618
TYRE
iW%m^
Modern Tyre.
conceive that in the course of centuries their relative importance might Huctuate, as would be very possible in modern times with two neighboring cities, such, for example, as Liverpool and Manchester. It is possi- ble, also, that Tyre may have been seriously weakened by its long struggle against Nebuchadnezzar. Under the Persian duminion, Tyre and Sidon supplied cedar- wood again to the Jews for the building of the second Temple; and this wood was sent by sea to Joppa, and thence to Jerusalem, as had been the case with the ma- terials for the first Temple in the time of Solomon (Ezra iii, 7). Under the Persians, likewise. Tyre was visited by a historian, from whom we might have derived val- uable information respecting its condition (Herod, ii, 44). But the information actually supplied by liim is scanty, as the motive of his voyage seems to have been soleiv to visit the celebrated Temple of Melkarth (the Phre- nician Hercules), which was situated in the island, and was highly venerated. He gives no details as to the city, and merely sjiecifies two columns which he ob- served in tiie temple, one of gold and the other of em- erald; or, rather, as is reasonably conjectured by Sir Gardiner Wilkinson, of green glass (Kawlinson, Herodo- tus,\\, 81, 82). Under the successive Persian rulers Pho-- nicia was allowed to retain many of its national insti- tutions, and even a certain amount of independence, in return fur which it paid a comparatively small tax and placed its again powerful fleet at the 'disposal of the conquerors, who entirely lacked that most vital element of naval power. Together with Philistia and Cyprus, It was incorporated under Darius Hystaspis in the fifth
nomos, or circle, of the em- pire; and up to the time of Xerxes the relations between the conquerors and the con- quered were of a perfectly friendly nature. But when this king, during his (Jreek invasion, had managed to de- stroy the highly [)rized Phoe- nician fleet almost comjdete- ly, and to this calamity add- ed galling measures and hu- miliations without end, the 5 people became so exasperated that they took part, under j| Sidon's leadership, in the re- volt of Egypt against Arta- xerxes Mnemon and Ochus, about the middle of the 4th century, which ended most disastrously for the whole country, and particidarly for Sidon, which, wealth and all, was fired by its own inhab- itants. Tyre afterwards (350) again resumed the sway, un- til, after the battle on the Issus, all the Phoenician cities except herself paid their al- legiance to the Macedonian warrior.
8. It was in consequence of this contumacy that Tyre ■\\as assailed for the third time by a great conqueror; and if some uncertainty hangs o\cr the siege by Nebuchatt- m // ir. the results of the siege b\ \lexander were clear and nnddiiable. It was essential to the success of his military ]il Ml-- that the Phoenician fleet <;hoidi| beat his command, and ' that he should not bo liable
thu ugh their hostility to have his coumuuiicaiions by sea with Greece and IMaccdonia suddenly cut ott'; and he accordingly summoned all the PhaMiician cities to sub- mit to his rule. All the rest of them, including Aradus, Byblus, and Sidon. complied with his demands, and the seamen of those cities in the Persian fleet brought away their ships to join him. Tyre alone, calculating prob- ably at first on the support of those seamen, refused to admit him within its walls; and then ensued a memor- aljle siege which lasted seven months, and the success of which was the greatest of all the achievements which Alexander up to that time had attempted. At that time Tyre was situated on an island nearly half a mile from the mainland: "it was completely surroiuided by prodigious walls, the loftiest portion of wliicli on the side fronting the mainland readied a height not less than one hundred and lifty feet;" and, notwithstand- ing his persevering efforts, he could not have succeed- ed in his attempt, if the harbor of Tyre to the north had not been blockaded by the Cyprians, and that to the south by the Phoenicians. Moreover, owing to in- ternal disturbances, Carthage was unable to afford any assistance to its parent state. Vox seven m<nitlis Tyre sustained one of the most remarkable sieges ever re- corded (B.C. 332). Palajtyrus having been razed to the ground, the island-city was connected by the conqueror with the mainland by means of a mole, which, once destroyed, had to be reconstructed entirely anew. An immense fleet was collected, the ablest engineers of Phoenicia and Cyprus exercised all their skill on the construction of new battering and other machines; while the means of defence on the part of the Tyrians were as