History of Phoenicia

G >> George Rawlinson >> History of Phoenicia


Under these circumstances, threatened on every side, and feeling almost
at the last gasp, the Tyrians resolved on a final desperate effort.
They would make a bold attempt to recover the command of the sea. As the
Macedonian fleet was divided, part watching the Sidonian and part the
Egyptian harbour, they could freely select to contend with which portion
they preferred. Their choice fell upon the Cyprian contingent, which
was stationed to the north of the mole, keeping guard on the "Portus
Sidonius." This they determined to attack, and to take, if possible, by
surprise. Long previously they had spread sails along the mouth of
the harbour, to prevent their proceedings inside it from being
overlooked.[14401] They now prepared a select squadron of thirteen
ships--three of them quinqueremes, three quadriremes, and seven
triremes--and silently placing on board their best sailors and the best
and bravest of their men-at-arms, waited till the hour of noon, when the
Cyprian crews would be taking their mid-day meal, and Alexander might be
expected, according to his general habit, to have retired to his tent
on the opposite side of the mole. When noon came, still in deep silence,
they issued from the harbour in single file, each crew rowing gently
without noise or splash, or a word spoken, either by the boatswains
or by anyone else. In this way they came almost close to the Cyprians
without being perceived: then suddenly the boatswains gave out their
cry, and the men cheered, and all pulled as hard as they could, and with
splash and dash they drove their ships against the enemy's, which were
inert, lying at anchor, some empty, others hurriedly taking their crews
on board. The ships of three Cyprian kings--Pnytagoras, king of Salamis,
Androcles, king of Amathus, and Pasicrates, king of Curium[14402]--were
at once run down and sunk.[14403] Many others were disabled; the rest
fled, pursued by the Tyrians, and sought to reach the shore. All would
probably have been lost, had not Alexander returned from his tent
earlier than usual, and witnessed the Tyrian attack. With his usual
promptitude, he at once formed his plan. As only a portion of the
Cyprian fleet had maintained the blockade, while the remainder of
their ships were lying off the north shore of the mole with their crews
disembarked, he set to work to man these, and sent them off, as each
was got ready, to station themselves at the mouth of the harbour, and
prevent any more of the Tyrian vessels from sallying forth. He then
hurried to the southern side of the mole, where the Greco-Phoenician
squadron kept guard, and manning a certain number of the vessels,[14404]
sailed with them round the western shore of the island into the northern
bay, where the Tyrians and the remnant of the Cyprian fleet were still
contending. Those in the city perceived the movement, and made every
effort to signal it to their sailors, but in vain. The noise and uproar
of the battle prevented them from hearing until it was too late. It was
not till Alexander had entered the northern bay that they understood,
and turned and fled, pursued by his ships, which captured or disabled
the greater number. The crews, however, and the men-at-arms, escaped,
since they threw themselves overboard, and easily swam into the
harbour.[14405]

This was the last attempt of the Tyrians by sea. They were now invested
on every side, and hopelessly shut up within their defences. Still,
however, they made a desperate resistance. On the side of the mole the
Macedonians, having brought up their towers and battering-ram close to
the wall, attacked it with much vigour, hurling against it great masses
of stone, and by constant flights of darts and arrows driving
the defenders from the battlements.[14406] At the same time the
battering-rams were actively plied, and every effort made to effect a
breach. But the Tyrians deadened the blows of the rams and the force
of the stones by letting down from the walls leathern bags filled with
sea-weed at the points assailed;[14407] while, by wheels which were set
in rapid motion, they intercepted the darts and javelins wherewith
they were attacked, and broke them or diverted them from their intended
courses.[14408] When boarding-bridges were thrown from the towers to the
top of the walls, and an attempt was made to pass troops into the
town across them, they flung grappling hooks among the soldiers on the
bridges, which caught in their bodies and lacerated them, or dragged
their shields from their hands, or sometimes hauled them bodily into the
air, and then dashed them against the wall or against the ground.[14409]
Further, they made ready masses of red-hot metal, and hurled them
against the towers and the scaling-parties.[14410] They also heated sand
over fires and poured it from the battlements on all who approached the
foot of the wall; this, penetrating between the armour and the skin,
inflicted such intolerable pain that the sufferers were forced to tear
off their coats of mail, whereupon they were easily transfixed by arrows
or long lances.[14411] With scythes they cut the ropes and thongs by
means of which the rams were worked;[14412] and at last, armed
with hatchets, they sprang from the battlements upon the Macedonian
boarding-bridges, and in a hand-to-hand combat defeated and drove back
their assailants.[14413] Finally, when, despite of all their efforts,
the outer wall began to give way, they constructed an inner wall to take
its place, broader and stronger than the other.[14414]

Alexander, after a time, became convinced that his endeavours to take
the city from the mole were hopeless, and turned his attention to the
sea defences, north and south of the mole, which were far less strong
than those which he had hitherto been attacking.[14415] He placed his
best engines and his boarding-bridges upon ships, and proceeded to
batter the sea walls in various places. On the south side, near the
Egyptian harbour, he found a weak place, and concentrating his efforts
upon it, he succeeded in effecting a large breach.[14416] He then gave
orders for a general assault.[14417] The two fleets were commanded to
force simultaneously the entrances to the two harbours; other vessels
to make demonstrations against the walls at all approachable points; the
army collected on the mole to renew its assaults; while he himself,
with his trustiest soldiers, delivered the main attack at the southern
breach.[14418] Two vessels were selected for the purpose. On one, which
was that of Coenus, he embarked a portion of the phalanx; on the
other, which was commanded by Admetus, he placed his bodyguard, himself
accompanying it. The struggle was short when once the boarding-bridges
were thrown across and rested on the battered wall. Fighting under the
eye of their king, the Macedonians carried all before them, though not
without important losses. Admetus himself, who was the first to step
on to the wall, received a spear thrust, and was slain.[14419] But the
soldiers who were following close behind him maintained their footing,
and in a little time got possession of several towers, with the spaces
between them. Alexander was among the foremost of those who mounted the
breach,[14420] and was for a while hotly engaged in a hand-to-hand fight
with the enemy. When those who resisted him were slain or driven off,
he directed his troops to seize the royal palace, which abutted on the
southern wall, and through it make their entrance into the town.[14421]

Meanwhile, the Greco-Phoenician fleet on the south side of the mole had
burst the boom and other obstacles by which the Egyptian harbour was
closed, and, attacking the ships within, had disabled some, and driven
the rest ashore, thus gaining possession of the southern port and a
ready access to the adjacent portion of the city.[14422] The Cyprians,
moreover, on the north, had forced their way into the Sidonian harbour,
which had no boom, and obtained an entrance into the town on that
quarter.[14423] The defences were broken through in three places, and
it might have been expected that resistance would have ceased. But the
gallant defenders still would not yield. A large body assembled at the
Agenorium, or temple of Agenor, and there made a determined stand, which
continued till Alexander himself attacked them with his bodyguard, and
slew almost the entire number. Others, mounting upon the roofs of the
houses, flung down stones and missiles of all kinds upon the Macedonians
in the street. A portion shut themselves up in their homes and perished
by their own hands. In the streets and squares there was a terrible
carnage. The Macedonians were infuriated by the length of the siege, the
stubbornness of the resistance, and the fact that the Tyrians had in the
course of the siege publicly executed, probably by way of sacrifice, a
number of their prisoners upon the walls. Those who died with arms in
their hands are reckoned at eight thousand;[14424] two thousand more,
who had been made prisoners, were barbarously crucified by command of
Alexander round the walls of the city.[14425] None of the adult free
males were spared, except the few who had taken refuge with Azemilcus
the king in the temple of Melkarth, which Alexander professed greatly
to revere, and a certain number whom the Sidonians, touched at last with
pity, concealed on board their triremes. The women, the children, and
the slaves, to the number of thirty thousand,[14426] were sold to the
highest bidder.

Having worked his will, and struck terror, as he hoped, into the hearts
of all who might be thinking of resisting him, Alexander concluded the
Tyrian episode of his career by a religious ceremony.[14427] Entering
the city from the mole in a grand procession, accompanied by his entire
force of soldiers, fully armed and arrayed, while his fleet also played
its part in the scene, he proceeded to the temple of Melkarth in the
middle of the town, and offered his much desired sacrifice to Hercules.
A gymnastic contest and a torch race formed a portion of the display.
To commemorate his victory, he dedicated and left in the temple the
battering-ram which had made the first impression on the southern wall,
together with a Tyrian vessel, used in the service of the god, which he
had captured when he bore down upon the city from Sidon with his fleet.
Over the charred and half-ruined remnants of the city, into which he
had introduced a certain number of colonists, chiefly Carians,[14428]
he placed as ruler a member of a decayed branch of the royal family, a
certain Abd-elonim, whom the Greeks called Ballonymos.[14429]




7. Phoenicia under the Greeks (B.C. 323-65)

The Phoenicians faithful subjects of Alexander--At his death
Phoenicia falls, first to Laomedon, then to Ptolemy Lagi--Is
held by the Ptolemies for seventy years--Passes willingly,
B.C. 198, under the Seleucidae--Relations with the Seleucid
princes and with the Jews--Hellenisation of Phoenicia--
Continued devotion of the Phoenicians generally to trade and
commerce--Material prosperity of Phoenicia.

Phoenicia continued faithful to Alexander during the remainder of his
career. Phoenician vessels were sent across the AEgean to the coast
of the Peloponnese to maintain the Macedonian interest in that
quarter.[14430] Large numbers of the mercantile class accompanied the
march of his army for the purposes of traffic. A portion of these, when
Alexander reached the Hydaspes and determined to sail down the course of
the Indus to the sea, were drafted into the vessels which he caused to
be built,[14431] descended the river, and accompanied Nearchus in his
voyage from Patala to the Persian Gulf. Others still remained with the
land force, and marched with Alexander himself across the frightful
deserts of Beloochistan, where they collected the nard and myrrh, which
were almost its only products, and which were produced in such abundance
as to scent the entire region.[14432] On Alexander's return to Babylon,
Phoenicia was required to supply him with additional vessels, and
readily complied with the demand. A fleet of forty-eight ships--two
of them quinqueremes, four quadriremes, twelve triremes, and thirty
pentaconters, or fifty-oared galleys--was constructed on the Phoenician
coast, carried in fragments to Thapsacus on the Euphrates, and there
put together and launched on the stream of the Euphrates, down which it
sailed to Babylon.[14433] Seafaring men from Phoenicia and Syria were at
the same time enlisted in considerable numbers, and brought to Alexander
at his new capital to man the ships which he was building there, and
also to supply colonists for the coasts of the Persian Gulf and the
islands scattered over its surface.[14434] Alexander, among his many
projects, nourished an intention of adding to his dominions, at any
rate, the seaboard of Arabia, and understood that for this purpose
he must establish in the Persian Gulf a great naval power, such as
Phoenicia alone out of all the countries under his dominion was able
to furnish. His untimely death brought all these schemes to an end, and
plunged the East into a sea of troubles.

In the division of Alexander's empire, which followed upon his death,
Phoenicia was at first assigned, together with Syria, to Laemedon,
and the two formed together a separate satrapy.[14435] But, after the
arrangement of Triparadisus (B.C. 320), Ptolemy Lagi almost immediately
attacked Laemedon, dispossessed him of his government, and attached it
to his own satrapy of Egypt.[14436] Six years later (B.C. 314),
attacked in his turn by Antigonus, Ptolemy was forced to relinquish his
conquests,[14437] none of which offered much resistance excepting
Tyre. Tyre, though no more than eighteen years had elapsed since its
desolation by Alexander, had, like the fabled phoenix, risen again from
its ruins, and through the recuperative energy of commerce had attained
almost to its previous wealth and prosperity.[14438] Its walls had been
repaired, and it was defended by its Egyptian garrison with pertinacity.
Antigonus, who was master of the Phoenician mainland, established
dockyards at Sidon, Byblus, and Tripolis, set eight thousand sawyers and
labourers to cut down timber in Lebanon, and called upon the kings
of the coast towns to build him a fleet with the least possible
delay.[14439] His orders were carried out, and Tyre was blockaded by sea
and land for the space of fifteen months, when the provisions failed and
the town was forced to surrender itself.[14440] The garrison marched out
with the honours of war, and Phoenicia became an appendage of the empire
(for such it was) of Antigonus.

From Antigonus Phoenicia passed to his son Demetrius, who maintained his
hold on it, with some vicissitudes of fortune, till B.C. 287, when it
once more passed under the dominion of Ptolemy Lagi.[14441] From
this time it was an Egyptian dependency for nearly seventy years,
and flourished commercially, if it not distinguish itself by warlike
exploits. The early Ptolemies were mild and wise rulers. They encouraged
commerce, literature, and art. So far as was possible they protected
their dominions from external attack, put down brigandage, and ruled
with equity and moderation. It was not until the fourth prince of the
house of Lagus, Philopator, mounted the throne (B.C. 222) that the
character of their rule changed for the worse, and their subjects began
to have reason to complain of them. The weakness and profligacy of
Philopater[14442] tempted Antiochus III. to assume the aggressive, and
to disturb the peace which had now for some time subsisted between
Syria and Egypt, the Lagidae and the Seleucidae. In B.C. 219 he drove the
Egyptians out of Seleucia, the port of Antioch,[14443] and being joined
by Theodotus, the Egyptian governor of the Coelesyrian province, invaded
that country and Phoenicia, took possession of Tyre and Accho, which
was now called Ptolemais, and threatened Egypt with subjugation.[14444]
Phoenicia once more became the battle-field between two great powers,
and for the next twenty years the cities were frequently taken and
re-taken. At last, in B.C. 198, by the victory of Antiochus over
Scopas,[14445] and the surrender of Sidon, Phoenicia passed, with
Coelesyria, into the permanent possession of the Seleucidae, and, though
frequently reclaimed by Egypt, was never recovered.

The change of rulers was, on the whole, in consonance with the wishes
and feelings of the Phoenicians. Though Alexandria may not have been
founded with the definite intention of depressing Tyre, and raising
up a commercial rival to her on the southern shore of the
Mediterranean;[14446] yet the advantages of the situation, and the
interests of the Lagid princes, constituted her in a short time an
actual rival, and an object of Phoenician jealousy. Phoenicia had been
from a remote antiquity[14447] down to the time of Alexander, the main,
if not the sole, dispenser of Egyptian products to Syria, Asia Minor,
and Europe. With the foundation of Alexandria this traffic passed out of
her hands. It may be true that what she lost in this way was "more than
compensated by the new channels of eastern traffic which Alexander's
conquests opened to her, by the security given to commercial intercourse
by the establishment of a Greek monarchy in the ancient dominions of the
Persian kings, and by the closer union which now prevailed between all
parts of the civilised world."[14448] But the balance of advantage and
disadvantage does not even now always reconcile traders to a definite
and tangible loss; and in the ruder times of which we are writing it
was not to be expected that arguments of so refined and recondite a
character should be very sensibly felt. Tyre and Sidon recognised in
Alexandria a rival from the first, and grew more and more jealous of her
as time went on. She monopolised the trade in Egyptian commodities from
her foundation. In a short time she drew to herself, not only the
direct Egyptian traffic, but that which her rulers diverted from other
quarters, and drew to Egypt by the construction of harbours, and roads
with stations and watering places.[14449] Much of the wealth that had
previously flowed into Phoenicia was, in point of fact, diverted to
Egypt, and especially to Alexandria, by the judicious arrangements of
the earlier Lagid princes. Phoenicia, therefore, in attaching herself to
the Seleucidae, felt that she was avenging a wrong, and though materially
she might not be the gainer, was gratified by the change in her
position.

The Seleucid princes on their part regarded the Phoenicians with
favour, and made a point of conciliating their affections by personal
intercourse with them, and by the grant of privileges. At the
quinquennial festival instituted by Alexander ere he quitted Tyre, which
was celebrated in the Greek fashion with gymnastic and musical contests,
the Syrian kings were often present in person, and took part in the
festivities.[14450] They seem also to have visited the principal cities
at other times, and to have held their court in them for many days
together.[14451] With their consent and permission, the towns severally
issued their own coins, which bore commonly legends both in Greek and
in Phoenician, and had sometimes Greek, sometimes Phoenician
emblems.[14452] Both Aradus and Tyre were allowed the privilege of being
asylums,[14453] from which political refugees could not be demanded by
the sovereign.

The Phoenicians in return served zealously on board the Syro-Macedonian
fleet, and showed their masters all due respect and honour.[14454] They
were not afraid, however, of asserting an independence of thought and
judgment, even in matters where the kings were personally concerned. On
one occasion, when Antiochus Epiphanes was holding his court at Tyre, a
cause of the greatest importance was brought before him for decision by
the authorities at Jerusalem. The high-priest of the time, Menelaus,
who had bought the office from the Syrian king, was accused of having
plundered the Temple of a number of its holy vessels, and of having
sold them for his own private advantage. The Sanhedrim, who prosecuted
Menelaus, sent three representatives to Tyre, to conduct the case, and
press the charges against him. The evidence was so clear that the High
Priest saw no chance of an acquittal, except by private interest. He
therefore bribed an influential courtier, named Ptolemy, the son of a
certain Dorymenes, to intercede with Antiochus on his behalf, and,
if possible, obtain his acquittal. The affair was not one of much
difficulty. Justice was commonly bought and sold at the Syro-Macedonian
Court, and Antiochus readily came into the views of Ptolemy, and
pronounced the High Priest innocent. He thought, however, that in so
grave a matter some one must be punished, and, as he had acquitted
Menelaus, he could only condemn his accusers. These unfortunates
suffered death at his hands, whereon the Tyrians, compassionating their
fate, and to mark their sense of the iniquity of the sentence, decreed
to give them an honourable burial. The historian who relates the
circumstance evidently feels that it was a bold and courageous act, very
creditable to the Tyrian people.[14455]

It is not always, however, that we can justly praise the conduct of
the Phoenicians at this period. Within six years of the time when the
Tyrians showed themselves at once so courageous and so compassionate,
the nation generally was guilty of complicity in a most unjust and
iniquitous design. Epiphanes, having driven the Jews into rebellion by
a most cruel religious persecution, and having more than once suffered
defeat at their hands, resolved to revenge himself by utterly destroying
the people which had provoked his resentment.[14456] Called away to
the eastern provinces by a pressing need, he left instructions with his
general, Lysias, to invade Judaea with an overwhelming force, and, after
crushing all resistance, to sell the surviving population--men, women,
and children--for slaves. Lysias, in B.C. 165, marched into Judaea,
accompanied by a large army, with the full intention of carrying out to
the letter his master's commands. In order to attract purchasers for the
multitude whom he would have to sell, he made proclamation that the rate
of sale should be a talent for ninety, or less than 3l. a head,[14457]
while at the same he invited the attendance of the merchants from all
"the cities of the sea-coast," who must have been mainly, if not wholly,
Phoenicians. The temptation was greater than Phoenician virtue could
resist. The historian tells us that "the merchants of the country,
hearing the fame of the Syrians, took silver and gold very much, with
servants, and came into the Syrian camp to buy the children of Israel
for money."[14458] The result was a well-deserved disappointment. The
Syrian army suffered complete defeat at the hands of the Jews, and had
to beat a hasty retreat; the merchants barely escaped with their lives.
As for the money which they had brought with them for the purchase of
the captives, it fell into the hands of the victorious Jews, and formed
no inconsiderable part of the booty which rewarded their valour.[14459]

After this, we hear but little of any separate action on the part of
the Phoenicians, or of any Phoenician city, during the Seleucid period.
Phoenicia became rapidly Hellenised; and except that they still remained
devoted to commercial pursuits, the cities had scarcely any distinctive
character, or anything that marked them out as belonging to a separate
nationality. Greek legends became more frequent upon the coins; Greek
names were more and more affected, especially by the upper classes; the
men of letters discarded Phoenician as a literary language, and composed
the works, whereby they sought to immortalize their names, in Greek.
Greek philosophy was studied in the schools of Sidon;[14460] and at
Byblus Phoenician mythology was recast upon a Greek type. At the same
time Phoenician art conformed itself more and more closely to Greek
models, until all that was rude in it, or archaic, or peculiar, died
out, and the productions of Phoenician artists became mere feeble
imitations of second-rate Greek patterns.

The nation gave itself mainly to the pursuit of wealth. The old trades
were diligently plied. Tyre retained its pre-eminence in the manufacture
of the purple dye; and Sidon was still unrivalled in the production of
glass. Commerce continued to enrich the merchant princes, while at the
same time it provided a fairly lucrative employment for the mass of the
people. A new source of profit arose from the custom, introduced by
the Syro-Macedonians, of farming the revenue. In Phoenicia, as in Syria
generally, the taxes of each city were let out year by year to some of
the wealthiest men of the place,[14461] who collected them with extreme
strictness, and made over but a small proportion of the amount to
the Crown. Large fortunes were made in this way, though occasionally
foreigners would step in, and outbid the Phoenician speculators,[14462]
who were not content unless they gained above a hundred per cent.
on each transaction. Altogether, Phoenicia may be pronounced to have
enjoyed much material prosperity under the Seleucid princes, though,
in the course of the civil wars between the different pretenders to
the Crown, most of the cities had, from time to time, to endure sieges.
Accho especially, which had received from the Lagid princes the name
of Ptolemais, and was now the most important and flourishing of the
Phoenician towns, had frequently to resist attack, and was more than
once taken by storm.[14463]