TYRE. This flourishing colony, from Sidon, was situated about eight hours journey from thence, southwards; and in process of time became "a mart of the nations:" Isa. xxiii. 3. Tyre also boasted of a very early antiquity: "Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient days?" Isa. xxiii. 7. And the antiquity of both was recognized by Xerxes; when, in a general council of his chieftains, during the Grecian war, he made the King of Sidon sit down first, next to him the King of Tyre, and the rest, according to their respective ranks. Herod. B. 8. The antiquity of Tyre has been variously estimated. Herodotus says, that the Tyrians, in his time, boasted of the antiquity of their temple and city, as founded 2300 years before, or about B.C. 2746; which is earlier than the date of the dispersion. On the other hand Josephus dates it too low, only 240 years before the foundation of Solomon's Temple, or B.C. 1267: whereas Joshua notices "the strong city of Tyre" about B.C. 1602. Probably the numeral letter denoting a thousand, was dropt from the text of Josephus; which, being restored, would give the date of the foundation of Tyre, B.C. 2267; or about 160 years before the foundation of Salem; which is probably correct; as the progress of colonization was later, the farther from the parent stock. Sidon, as the eldest of the sons of Canaan, probably was also the first settled in his allotted station. Tyre was twofold, Insular and Continental. Insular Tyre was certainly the most ancient; for this it was which was noticed by Joshua: the continental city, however, as being more commodiously situated, first grew into consideration, and assumed the name of Paletyrus, or Old Tyre. Want of sufficient attention to this distinction, has embarrassed both the Tyrian Chronology and Geography. Insular Tyre was confined to a small rocky island, eight hundred paces long, and four hundred broad, and could never exceed two miles in circumference. But Tyre, on the opposite coast, about half a mile from the sea, was a city of vast extent, since many centuries after its demolition by Nebuchadnezzar, the scattered ruins measured nineteen miles round, as we learn from Pliny and Strabo. Of these, the most curious and surprising are, the cisterns of Roselayne, designed to supply the city with water; of which there are three still 66 entire, about one or two furlongs from the sea; so well described by Maundrel, for their curious construction and solid masonry. "The fountains of these waters," says he, after the description, are as unknown as the contriver of them. According to common tradition, they are filled from a subterraneous river which King Solomon discovered by his great sagacity; and that he caused these cisterns to be made as part of his recompence to King Hiram, for the materials furnished by that prince, towards building the temple at Jerusalem. It is certain, however, from their rising so high above the level of the ground, that they must be brought from some part of the mountains, which are about a league distant; and it is as certain that the work was well done at first, seeing it performs its office so well, at so great a distance of time; the Turks having broken an outlet on the west side of the cistern, through which there issues a stream like a brook, driving four corn mills between it and the sea." From these cisterns there was an aqueduct which led to the city, supported by arches, about six yards from the ground, running in a northerly direction about an hour, when it turns to the west, at a small mount, where anciently stood a fort, but now a mosque, which seems to ascertain the site of the old city, and thence proceeds over the isthmus that connects insular Tyre with the main, built by Alexander, when he besieged and took it. Old Tyre withstood the mighty Assyrian power, having been besieged, in vain, by Shalmanasar, for five years; although he cut off their supplies of water from the cisterns; which they remedied, by digging wells within the city. It afterwards held out for thirteen years against Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, and was at length taken; but not until the Tyrians had removed their effects to the insular town, and left nothing but the bare walls to the victor, which he demolished. What completed the destruction of the city was, that Alexander afterwards made use of these materials to build a prodigious causeway, or isthmus, above half a mile long, to the insular city, which revived as the Phoenix, from the ashes of the old, and grew to great power and opulence as a maritime state; and which he stormed after a most obstinate siege of five months. Pococke observes, that "there are no signs of the ancient city; and as it is a sandy shore, the face of every thing is altered, and the great aqueduct is in many parts almost buried in the sand." Vol. II. p. 81. Thus has been fulfilled the prophecy of Ezekiel : "Thou shalt be built no more: though thou be sought for, yet shalt thou never be found again!" xxvi. 21. The fate of Insular Tyre has been no less remarkable: When Alexander stormed the city, he set fire to it. This circumstance was foretold: " Tyre did build herself a strong hold, and heaped up silver as the dust, and fine gold, as the mire of the streets. Behold the Lord will cast her out, and He will smite her power in the sea, and she shall be devoured with fire." Zech. ix. 3, 4. After this terrible calamity, Tyre again retrieved her losses. Only eighteen years after, she had recovered such a share of her ancient commerce and opulence, as enabled her to stand a siege of fourteen months against Antigonus, before he could reduce the city. After this, Tyre fell alternately under the dominion of the Kings of Syria and Egypt, and then of the Romans, until it was taken by the Saracens, about A.D. 639, retaken by the Crusaders, A.D. 1124; and at length sacked and razed by the Mamalukes of Egypt, with Sidon, and other strong towns, that they might no longer harbour the Christians, A.D. 1289. Maundrel, the most intelligent of modern travellers, who visited the Holy Land A.D. 1697, described it thus: "This city, standing in the sea upon a peninsula, promises, at a distance, something very magnificent; but when you come to it, you find no similitude of that glory for which it was so renowned in ancient times, and which the prophet Ezekiel describes, chap. xxvi. xxvii. xxviii. On the north side, it has an old Turkish ungarrisoned castle; besides which, you see nothing here but a mere Babel of broken walls, pillars, vaults, &c.; there being not so much as one entire house left! Its present inhabitants are only a few poor wretches harbouring themselves in the vaults, and subsisting chiefly by fishing: who seem to be preserved in this place by Divine Providence, as a visible argument how God has fulfilled his word concerning Tyre; viz. that it should be as the top of a rock; a place for fishers to dry their nets upon." Ezek. xxvi. 14. And Hasselquist, who saw it since, in A.D. 1751, observes: "None of those cities which were formerly famous, are so totally ruined as Tyre, (now called Zur) except Troy. Zur now scarcely can be called a miserable village, though it was formerly Tyre, the queen of the sea! Here are about ten inhabitants, Turks and Christians, who live by fishing." The Phoenicians in general, were the most extensive and ex perienced navigators of antiquity. Not confining themselves to the Mediterranean and Euxine Seas, they explored the coasts of the Eastern and Atlantic Oceans. We read of two voyages made by Solomon's ships, assisted by Hiram, the King of Tyre's subjects: the first from Eziongeber, a port on the Idumæan sea, to Ophir, whence they brought back gold, 1 Kings ix. 27, 28; 2 Chron. viii. 17, 18; and also " Almug trees, and precious stones," 1 Kings x. 11. The Almug tree is thought to be Ebony, or Lignum vitæ ; and Ophir is judiciously conjectured by Bruce, to have been Sofala *, a district on the eastern coast of Africa, nearly opposite to the centre of the great island of Madagascar. The second voyage, which employed three years, was made by their joint fleets, which sailed to Tarshish, or Tartessus, or the isle of Cadiz, lying between the two branches of the Guadalquiver, on the coast of Spain, whence they proceeded southwards, to the coast of Guinea; from which they brought back "gold, ivory, apes, and peacocks;" and from Spain, "silver;" 1 Kings x. 22; as well explained by Gillies, Vol. 1. p. 151—153; who also remarks, that they traded northwards, to the Cassiterides, or Scilly Islands, and the coasts of Cornwall, in Great Britain, for tin, which was used for hardening copper, to supply the want of iron or steel weapons; and even to the coasts of the Baltic, for the admired article of Amber, then deemed more precious than gold. In Pharaoh Necho's time, the Phoenician mariners, employed on a voyage of discovery, setting out from the Red Sea, circumnavigated Africa in three years. Herodot. IV. 42. ASSYRIA. This country, in its most extensive signification, both in sacred and profane history, comprehended, 1. Assyria Proper, eastward of the Tigris, and south of Taurus. It was called in Scripture, Kir: "Have not I brought up the Assyrians from Kir?" Amos ix. 7. "The people of Syria shall go into captivity unto Kir." Amos i. 5. "And the king of * From Ophir was derived Σwpipa, Sophira, the name given by Josephus, Ant. 8, 6, 4: and from thence, Sophala, or Sofala, by a usual permutation of L and R. It was the country of the Macrobian Ethiopians, or Abyssinians, whom Cambyses invaded unsuccessfully, coveting their gold: the abundance of which is expressed by "the gold chains of their prisoners." Herodotus, III. 23. See Gillies' History of the World, Vol. I. p. 154. Assyria took Damascus, and slew their king, Rezin, and carried the people captive to Kir." 2 Kings xvi. 9. And the name is still traceable in that country; the Kar-duchian, or Kur-distan, mountains; Kiarè, the name of their loftiest ridge, the large town of Ker-kook, and several other places of less note, in their prefixes, evidently retain the original word, Kir, with some slight deviation. This was a rich and fertile, though mountainous region; whence it was called by the Greeks, Adiabene, "impassable;" finely watered by the springs of the Tigris, the greater and lesser Zab, the Diala, and the Mendeli. Its capital city was Nineveh, on the east side of the Tigris, opposite to the modern city of Mosul; in lat. 36, 20, according to Niebuhr, Tom. II. Tab. XLV. 2. Aram, or Syria, eastward of the Euphrates. This was divided into two districts, the northern and the southern. The upper was called in Scripture, Aram Naharaim, "Aram between the two rivers ;" and by the Greeks, Mesopotamia, of the same import. This was the country of Nahor, Gen. xxiv. 10; and of Laban, the Syrian, Gen. xxxi. 20; and of Balaam, the diviner, who came from Aram, out of the mountains of the east," Numb. xxiii. 7; or from Aram Naharaim, Deut. xxiv. 4. 66 The lower part of this division was called Padan Aram, “the champaign Aram," Gen. xxv. 20; in which was Haran, Gen. xi. 31; called Charran, Acts vii. 2; and the city of Nahor, Gen. xxiv. 10, compared with xxvii. 43; to which Abraham's family first emigrated from the original settlement of the family at "Ur, of the Chaldees," situated near "the river" Tigris, and probably the same place as Pethor, Peth-Ur, or Beth-Ur, "the house of light," the residence of Balaam, and "the land of the children of Balak's people," or of his ancestors; whence this king of Moab sent for the diviner to curse Israel. Numb. xxii. 5. Charran is probably still recorded in Charræ, in the north-west of Mesopotamia, a city situated on an arm of the river Chaboras, which runs into the Euphrates; and noticed by the Roman writers, on account of the signal defeat of Crassus, and the Romans there, by the Parthians. The whole of this northern district extended from Mount Masius*, to the wall of Media southwards, including all that fertile *The upper region of Mesopotamia, between Mount Masius and Taurus, belonged to Armenia. Thus Herodotus observes, that boats descended from Armenia, above Assyria, to Babylon. Book I. p. 194. |