UAM.
The present city lies only upon the eastern part of the island, on the junction of the island and isthmus. The houses are mostly mere hovels, one storv high, with flat roofs ; and the streets are narrow, crooked, and filthy. Yet the i\umerous palm-trees and pride- of- India trees interspersed among the houses and gardens throw over the ])lain an Oriental charm. One of the best accounts of its present appearance is given by Dr. Kobinson, who spent a Sabbath there in 1838 (Bibl. Pes. iii, 395): "I continued my walk," says he, "along the shore of the peninsula, part of which is now unoccupied except as ' a place to spread nets upon,' musing upon the pride and fall of ancient Tyre. Here was the little isle, once covered by her palaces and sur- rounded by her fleets; but, alas! thy riches and thy fame, thy merchandise, thy mariners and thy pilots, thy calkers, and the occupiers of tliy merchandise tliat were in thee — where are they? Tyre has indeed become
Kiiins ofTyie on ttie Mainland.
TYRE, COUNCIL OF
621
TYROPCEON
like ' the top of a rock.' The sole tokens of her more ancient splendor — columns of red and gray granite, sometimes forty or fifty heaped together, or marble pil- lars— lie broken and strewed beneath the waves in the midst of the sea; and the hovels that now nestle upon a portion of her site present no contradiction of the dread decree, ' Thou shalt be built no more.' "
The downfall and permanent desolation of Tyre is one of the most memorable accomplishments of prophecy which the annals of the world exhibit. The sins which sealed its ruin were, in the words of the sacred writers, these: "Because that Tyrus hath said against Jerusa- lem, Aha, she is broken that was the gates of the peo- ple; she is turned unto me: 1 shall be replenished, now she is laid waste" (Ezek. xxvi,2). " Because thine heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a god, I sit in the seat of God, in the miilst of the seas" (xxviii, 2). "The children also of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have ye sold unto the Grecians, that ye might remove them far from tlieir border" (Joel iii, (i).
V. Literature. — See, in addition to the works cited above, Cellarii Notit. ii, 381 sq. ; Hengstenberg, De Re- bus Syriorum (Berol. 1882) ; Khj'iicr, De Tyro (Basil. 1715); Camenz, Z^e Nave Tyria (Viteb. 1714); Smith, Diet, of Class. Geoff. s. v. ; Poulan de Bossaj"^, Recherches sur Tyre (Paris, 1864); Thomson, Lund and Hook, i, 260 S(p ; Gesenius, Comment, zu Jesa. i, 707 sq. ; Wilson, lAiiids of the Bible, ii, 229 ; Biideker, Palestine, p. 426 sq. ; Kidgaway, The Lord's Land, p. 604 sq.
TYRE, Cou^'CIL of. The Arians, through Eusebius of Nicomedia, obtained the convocation of this council from the emperor Constantine, A.D. 335, under pretext of thereby healing the divisions which existed among the bishops; but their real intention was to oppress Athanasius. The bishops who were summoned to at- tend were selected by the Eusebian party, and came from Egypt, Libya, Asia, and most of the eastern prov- inces. The most noted were Marius of Chaleedon, Theognis of Nicaja, Ursaces of Singedininm, and Valens of Mursia; in all about sixty Arian bishops attended. There were also a few bishops present who were not of the Eusebian faction, as Maximus of Jerusalem, Mar- cellus of Ancyra, Alexander of Thessalonica. etc. Con- stantine sent the count Dionysins to keep order, who, as the event showed, was completely devoted to the Eusebian cause, and by his violence destroyed all lib- erty of debate.
Athanasius, compelled by the order of the emperor, came to the council, attended b_v forty-nine Egyi)tian bishops, among whom were Potamon and Paphnutius. No accusation was brought against Athanasius on ac- count of his faith; but he was arraigned for having killed a Meletian bishop named Arsenius, and for hav- ing forcibly broken into a church while Ischyrus, a pre- tended priest, was celebrating ; and for having over- turned the altar and broken the sacred chalice. He was made to stand as a criminal, while Eusebius and the others sat as his judges, against which treatment Potamon of Heraclea made a vehement protest, heap- ing reproaches upon Eusebius. From the very tirst the Egyptian bishops protested against the proceedings; but their objections were not heeded. Sozomen says that Athanasius appeared frequently before the coim- cil, and tlefended himself admirably, listening quietly to all the calumnious accusations brought against him, and replying with patience and wonderful sagacity. However, his enemies, not contented with the charges which they had alreadj^ brought against him, dared to impeach his purity, and introduced into the council a debauched woman, whom they had bribed to assert that she had been ravished by him. The utter false- hood of the charge was, however, triumphantly proved ; for Athanasius having deputed one of his priests, named Thimoteus, to reply for him, the woman, who was igno- rant even of the person of the holy bishop, mistaking Thimoteus for him, declared that he was the man who had offered violence to her at such a time and place.
Neither were his accusers more successful in their en- deavor to fix upon liim the murder of Arsenius, who, in the midst of their false statements, appeared before the council alive. Foiled in both these infamous at- tempts, the Arians were tilled with fury, and endeavor- ed to ofl'er violence to him, in which, however, tliev were prevented by the officers of Constantine. Noth- ing now remained but the charge of having broken the chalice, and there being no proof ready, and the clergy of the country where the offence was said to have taken place having solemn!)' sworn to the falsehood of the charge, a deputation was sent to make inquiry on tlie spot (in the Mareotis), composed of the most decided of his enemies. In the meantime, Athanasius, seeing that his condemnation, by fair means or foul, was resolved, withdrew from Tj-re. The deputies, upon their return, declared that they had found the charge correct; antl upon this statement, sentence of deposition was pro- nounced, on the plea of his having been convicted of a part of the accusation brought against him. INIore than lifty bishops protested against the acts of this assembly. See Mansi, Concil. ii, 435; Landon, Manual of Councils, s. V. See Athanasius.