717. and difpirited by the war which Hezekiah had made upon them, laid hold of the opportunity of reducing Gath, which had fome time before revolted from the Tyrians. Whereupon the Gittites, applying to Shalmanefer, engaged him in their caufe; fo that he marched at the head of a powerful army into Phoenice; but, upon the conclufion of a peace between him and Elulæus, he withdrew his troops, and retired. Not long after this event, Sidon, Arce, Palætyrus, and feveral other maritime towns of Phoenice, revolting from the Tyrians, proclaimed Shalmanefer their king. Thus a new war being kindled Yr. of Fl. between the Tyrians and Affyrians, Shalmanefer, highly 1631. provoked against the Tyrians, the only people in Phoenice Ante Chr. that difputed his power and authority, refolved to use his utmost endeavours to reduce their city; and therefore, befides his land forces, he ordered a fleet of fixty fail to be equipped against them. But this navy was encountered and difperfed by the Tyrians, with only twelve veffels, and five hundred of the rowers were taken prifoners. This victory gained the Tyrians fuch reputation for naval affairs, that Shalmanefer, dreading to engage them a second time at fea, turned the war into a fiege, and leaving the army to block up the city, returned into Affyria. The forces he left behind him reduced the place to great straits, by ftopping the aqueducts, placing guards by the fprings, and cutting off all the conveyances of water. However, by digging wells within the city, they found fome relief in their distress, which enabled them to hold out for the fpace of five years; at the end of which, Shalmaneser dying, the fiege was raifed. Elulæus reigned thirty years. Ithobal II. poffeffed the throne in the time of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, who laid fiege to the city of Tyre, which kept that mighty monarch employed for thirteen years together P. Such was the power of the Tyrians at that time. We have the defcription of the fiege in Ezekiel, who mentions a fort raised against the place, à mount caft up, and engines of war erected to batter down its walls. At laft, Nebuchadnezzar made himfelf mafter of the city; but, as moft part of the citizens had retired, with all their effects, elsewhere, before he entered the place, he had nothing but an empty town for his pains, as is plain from the Scripture, where it is faid, "Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon caused his army to P Philoftrat. apud Jofeph. Antiq. lib. x. cap. 11. and lib. i. contra Apion. 9 Ezek. xxvi. 8. & feq. Jofeph. Antiq. lib. ix. cap. 14. Yr. of Fl. 1763. Ante Chr. 585. Ithobal II. Yr. of Fl. 1766. Ante Chr. 572. Baals Yr. of Fl. 1786. Ante Chr. 562. Tyre governed by judges. ferve a great fervice against Tyrus-yet he had no wages, nor his army, for Tyrus." Finding himself thus difappointed, he vented his rage upon the buildings, and the few inhabitants that were left, rafing the town to the ground, and putting all he found in it to the fword. Ithobal, in whofe reign this difafter happened to Tyre, was, according to the character the prophet gives him ', a moft proud, arrogant, and affuming prince; pretended to know all fecrets, to be as wife. as Daniel, and even went fo far as to rank himself among the gods; an impious pride which brought that heavy judgment upon him, "Because thou hast set thine heart as the heart of God; behold, therefore, I will bring ftrangers upon thee;they fhall bring thee down to the pit, and thou fhalt die the death of them that are flain in the midst of the feas $." From whence we may conclude, that, in this war, he was flain by the Affyrians. As it is plain from Scripture, that Nebuchadnezzar utterly deftroyed the city of Tyre, which he found empty; and as, on the other hand, we are told by the Phoenician hiftorians, that Ithobal was fucceeded in the kingdom of Tyre by Baal, and Baal by feveral temporary magiftrates; it is very probable, that the inhabitants of Tyre retreated with their effects, before Nebuchadnezzar carried the place, to an island about half a mile distant from the fhore, where they built themselves a new city; which, after the destruction of the old town, fubmitted to Nebuchadnezzar, who appointed Baal to be his viceroy. But, upon Baal's death, in order to make the government more dependent on the Affyrians, he changed the royal dignity into that of temporary magiftrates, called fuffetes (C) or judges; a name well known among the Carthaginians, who were originally Tyrians. Baal reigned ten years, and, upon his death, the following judges had the government of the city; Ecnibal the fon of Bafbech, two months; Chelbes, the fon of Abdæus, ten months; the high-priest Abbar, three months; Mytgonus or Myttonus, and Geraftus, the fons of Abdelimus, fix years. After Tyre had been thus governed for fome years by judges, the royal dignity was reftored; and s Ibid. ver. 6, 7, 8, Ezek. xxviii. 3, 4. the chief governors of Ifrael were called for several generations, before they had kings.' Prideaux's Connect. vol.i.p. 92. Balator 1792. 556. Balator created king; but both he and his fucceffors Yr. of Fl. were entirely dependent on, and tributatries to, the Affyrians, for the space of seventy years; which being ex- Ante Chr. pired, they recovered, according to the prophecy of Ifaiah', their ancient liberty. Balator reigned but one Balater year; and at his death, the Tyrians invited Merbal from king. Babylon, who reigned four years. Merbal. Merbal was fucceeded by his brother Irom, who reigned Irom. twenty years. In the fourteenth year of Irom's reign, Cyrus, according to the Phoenician annals, made himself mafter of the Perfian empire'. 1868. Ante Chr. 480. Several years after Irom, reigned Marten the son of Yr. of Fl. Sirom. He served in Xerxes's navy against the Greeks; and, with the other commanders, advised him to engage the Grecian fleet at Salamis. The Tyrians, as well as the other Phoenicians, were, at this time, tributaries to Marten. the Perfians, though under a king of their own, being greatly favoured by the Perfian monarchs, in confideration of the fervices they rendered them in their naval expeditions. About this time reigned Strato, whofe acceffion to Strate the throne is thus related by Juftin". The flaves, who were then very numerous at Tyre, having formed a confpiracy against their masters, murdered them all in one night (except Strato, whom his flave fecretly faved); and, taking poffeffion of the city, married their miftreffes, and put all the others to the fword, who were not of their own race. Having thus not only recovered their liberty, but made themselves abfolute lords of the ftate, they refolved to create a king out of their own body, and unanimously agreed, that he should be raised to that dignity, as being the most acceptable to the gods, who, the next morning, fhould first see the rifing fun. In pursuance of this refolution and agreement, they appointed to meet about midnight in an open field, on the eaft fide of the city, and there, with one accord, beftow the crown upon the perfon to whom the fun fhould fhew himself first. In the mean time, Strato's flave, having imparted the whole matter to his master, whom he kept carefully concealed, was by him inftructed to turn himself, not to the eaft, as the others would probably do, but to the weft, and there keep his eyes fixed on the top of the highest Ifa. xxiii. 15, 17. • Vide Jofeph. lib. i. contra Apion. Herodotus, lib. vi cap. 98. & lib. viii. cap. 67. u Juftin. lib. xviii. cap. 3. tower tower of the city. The flave obeyed his master's directions, and was therefore looked upon by the whole multitude as no better than a mad-man; it feeming to them very strange, that a man should look for the rifing-fun in the weft. But they were foon made fenfible of their error; for, while the others ftood gazing towards the eaft, in expectation of feeing the fun appear, Strato's flave fhewed them the high edifices of the city already illuminated with his rays; whereupon he was highly applauded by his companions, and eagerly preffed to name the person to whom he was indebted for such a wise contrivance, which they could not afcribe to him, or any other flave. He refufed at firft to gratify their curiofity; but, at laft, upon promife of impunity for himself, and the perfon he should name, he owned, that, out of compaffion and gratitude towards his mafter, who had always treated him with great humanity and kindness, he had faved both him and his fon in the common maffacre, and acted in the affair they were fo inquifitive about, according to his directions. The multitude not only pardoned the flave, but, looking on the master as one preferved by a particular providence of the gods, immediately proclaimed him king. This is all we know of Strato. At his demife, his fon was placed on the throne; and the kingdom of Tyre was enjoyed by his defcendents, among whom, the only prince we find mentioned in hiftory is Azelmic, in whofe reign happened the memorable fiege and reduction of that city by Alexander the Great". We may judge of its flourishing condition at that time, from the ftand it made against that victorious prince, fince it stopped the course of his whole army full feven months. As the conqueror approached the territories of Tyre, the Tyrians fent out ambaffadors to meet him (amongst whom was the king's own fon), with presents for himself, and provifions for his army; but, when he defired to enter the city, under pretence of offering facrifice to Hercules, they refufed him admittance; a repulfe which provoked Alexander, now flushed with fo many victories, to fuch a degree, that he refolved to ftorm the city, and enter it by force. On the other hand, the Tyrians, not at all terrified by Alexander's threats, determined to fuftain the fiege to the last. What encouraged them to this refolution, was the ftrength of the place, and the confidence they had in the Carthaginians, their allies. y Arrianus, lib. ii. The The city then ftood on an island half a mile diftant from the fhore; was furrounded with a strong wall an hundred and fifty feet high, and ftored with great plenty of provifions, and all forts of warlike machines; befides, the Carthaginians, who were then mafters of the feas, had promifed to fend them fuccours. What animated the Tyrians to stand a fiege, gave Alexander no small uneafiness in the undertaking; for he could no otherwise make his approaches to it, than by carrying a mole or caufey from the continent to the island on which the city ftood. This grand work he undertook; and, as he was refolved at any rate to reduce the city, he accomplished it at last, maugre the innumerable, and almoft unfurmountable difficulties with which it was attended. He was affifted in raifing the mole (which was two hundred feet in breadth) by the inhabitants of the neighbouring cities, who were all called in on this occafion; fupplied with ftones from the ruins of old Tyre, and with timber from Mount Libanus. The Tyrians at firft looked upon this undertaking as a rafh and defperate attempt, which could never be attended with any fuccefs; and therefore, from their fhips, they asked him in derifion, Whether he believed himself to be greater than Neptune? But, feeing the mole beginning to appear above water, they refolved, for fear of the worst, to fend their wives and children, and fuch as were not fit for fervice, to Carthage; but were prevented by the arrival of Alexander's fleet from Cyprus. Neither could the Carthaginians affift them with the promised fuccours, being detained at home by domeftic troubles. However, the Tyrians perfifted in the refolution of standing to their de fence, first from their ships, and afterwards, as the mole was brought nearer the city, from the walls, with fhowers of arrows, darts, ftones, and other miffiles, wherewith they made a moft dreadful havock of the Macedonians, who were employed in the work, and exposed without any defence. But what moft of all difheartened the enemy, was a violent ftorm, which, arifing all on a fudden, carried away, in a great part, the caufey, after it had been, with unwearied labour, and great lofs of men, brought near the walls of the city. This unlucky accident perplexed Alexander to fuch a degree, that he began to repent he had undertaken the fiege, and would have fent ambaffadors to the Tyrians with terms of peace, had he believed they would have hearkened to them. But, as they had thrown headlong into the fea the ambaffadors, who, before the fiege, had, in his name, fummoned them tq |