PHOENICIA. 613
(Diod. xvi. 43.) But in the year 315 B.C. Antiponus,
returning victorious from Babylonia, easily
expelled the garrisons of Ptolemy from all the Phoenician
towns except Tyre, where he experienced an
obstinate resistance. Eighteen years had sufficed to
restore it in a considerable degree to its ancient
wealth and power ; and although the mole still remained
it was almost as impregnable as before, and
was not reduced till after a siege of fifteen months.
From this period down to near the end of the third
century b. c. there was an almost constant succession
of struggles for the possession of Phoenicia
between the Ptolemies on one side and the Seleucidae
on the other. Ptolemy Euergetes succeeded in reducing
it, and it was held by him and his son Philopator
down to the year 218 B.C. ; when Antiochus
the Great, taking advantage of the indolent and
sensual character of the latter, and the consequent
disorders of his administration, undertook its re-
covery. Tyre and Ace were surrendered to him by
the treachery of Theodotus, the lieutenant of Phi-
lopator, and the Egyptian army and fleet were de-
feated and driven to take refuge at Sidon. In the
following year, however, Philopator defeated An-
tiochus at Eaphia near the frontiers of Egypt, and
regained possession of Phoenicia and Syria, which
he retained till his death, b. c. 205. The reign
of his infant son again tempted the ambition of
Antiochus. He succeeded in reducing Phoenicia,
and after repulsing an attempt of the Egyptians
to regain it in B.C. 198, firmly established his do-
minion, and bequeathed it to his sons.
Notwithstanding these struggles, Tyre appears to
have still enjoyed a considerable share of commercial
prosperity, in which, however, she had now to en-
counter a formidable rival in Alexandria. At first,
indeed, that city did not much interfere with her
prosperity; but the foundation of Berenice on the
Bed Sea by Ptolemy Philadel})hus, the making of a
road between that place and Coptos, and the re-
opening of the canal which connected the gulf of
Stiez with the Pelusiac branch of the Nile (Strab.
p. 781) inflicted a severe blow upon her commerce,
and converted Alexandria into the chief emporium
for the products of the East.
The civil wars of the Seleucidae, and the suffer-
ings which they entailed, induced the Syrians and
Phoenicians to place themselves under the protection
of Tigranes, king of Armenia, in the year 8.3 b. c.
(Justin, xl. 1 ; Appian, Syr. 48.) Ace, or Ptolemais,
was the only city which, at the instigation of Selene,
queen of Antigonus, refused to open its gates to
Tigranes. That monarch held Phoenicia during
fourteen years, when the Seleucidae regained it for a
short time in consequence of the victories of Lucullus.
Four years later Pompey reduced all Syria to the
condition of a Roman province. During the civil
wars of Rome, Phoenicia was the scene of many
struggles between the Roman generals. Just pre-
viously to the battle of Philippi, Cassius divided
Syria into several small principalities, which he sold
to the highest bidders ; and in this way Tyre had
a;;ain a king called Marion. Antony presented the
whole country between Egypt and the river Eleu-
therus to Cleopatra, but, in spite of her intreaties to
the contrary, secured Tyre and Sidon in their
ancient freedom. (Joseph. Ant. xv. 4. § 1.) But
when Augustus visited the East, b. c. 20, he deprived
them of their liberties. (Dion Cass. liv. 7.)
Although the Roman dominion jjut an end to the
political existence of Tyre and Sidon, they retained
PHOENICIA.
6)3
their manufactures and commerce for a considerable
period. Mela, who probably wrote during the reign
of Claudius, characterises Sidon as "adhuc opulenta"
(i. 12); and Pliny, at about the same period, adverts
to the staple trade of Tyre as beini,' still in a
flourishing condition (" nunc omnis ejus nobilitas
conchylio atque purpura constat," v. 17). At the
instance of the rhetorician Paulus, Hadrian, as we
have already mentioned, granted to Tyre the title of
metropolis. It was the residence of a proconsul, and
the chief naval station on the coast of Syria. During
the contest of Septimius Severus and Pescennius
Niger for imperial power, a. d.193, Berytus favoured
the cause of Niger, Tyre that of Septimius; in con-
sequence of which, it was taken and burnt by the
light Mauritanian troops of Niger, who committed
great slaughter. (Herodian, iii. 9. § 10.) Severus,
after his success, recruited the population of Tyre
from the third legion, and, as a reward for its
attachment, bestowed on it the Jtis Italicum and
the title of colony. (Ulpian, Dig. Leg. de Cens.
tit. 15; Eckhel, vol. iii. p. 387.) In the time of
St. Jerome, towards the end of the fourth century,
it was still the first commercial city of the East
(^Comm. ad Ezeh. xxvi. 7, xxvii. 2) ; and after the
destruction of Berytus by an earthquake in the
reign of Justinian, it monopolised the manufacture of
imperial purple, which it had previously shared with
that city. Beyond this period it is not necessary to
pursue the history of Phoenicia. We shall only add
that Tyre continued to flourish under the mild
dominion of the caliphs, and that, in spite of all the
violence which it suffered from the crusaders, its
prosperity was not utterly annihilated till the con-
quest of Syria by the Ottoman Turks, a. d. 1516;
a result, however, to which the discovery of the
New World, and of a route to Asia by the Cape of
Good Uope, likewise contributed.
V. Political Constitution.
Phoenicia consisted of several small independent
kingdoms, or rather cities, which were sometimes
united with and sometimes opposed to one another,
just as we find Canaan described at the time when
it was invaded by the Israelites. (Strab. xvi. p. 754;
Joshua, x.) We have but little information re-
specting the constitution of these kingdoms. The
throne was commonly hereditary, but the people
seem to have possessed a right of election. (Justin,
xviii. 4.) The chief priests exercised great power,
and were next in rank to the king. Thus Sicharbas,
or Sichaeus, chief priest of the temple of Hercules,
was the husband of Dido, and consequently the
brother-in-law of king Pygmalion. There seems
also to have been a powerful aristocracy, but on what
it was founded is unknown. Thus a body of nobles,
who are called senators, accompanied the emigration
of Dido. (Justin, I. c.) During the interregnum at
Tyre after the servile insurrection, the government
was carried on by elective magistrates, called judges
orsuffetes. (Joseph, c. ^ja. i. 21.) This institution
also obtained at Gades and Carthage, and probably
in all the western colonies of Tyro. (Liv. xxviii. 37 ;
comp. Movers, ii. pt. i. p. 534.) Kings existed in
Phoenicia down to the time of Alexan<ler the Great.
(Arrian, ii. 24.) The federal constitution of Phoe-
nicia resembled a Grecian hegemony: either Tyre
or Sidon was always at the head, though Araiius
and Byblus likewise had kings. During the eariicst
period of its history, Sidon appears to liave been
the leading city ; but after its capture by the king
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