a refuge to the inhabitants of Tyre when besieged by Alexander.[1] Thus, without the aid of conquering armies, this remarkable people spread over the remotest parts of the then known world, establishing the arts of peace among nations previously buried in darkness and barbarism, and making the "solitary places of the earth to rejoice." No commercial nation of either ancient or modern times presents a history, so far as we can trace it, more worthy of imitation than that of Phœnicia. Liberal, by comparison, in its policy, and enlightened in its intercourse with other peoples, it offered, in the plenitude of its power, an example to the ancient world of what industry and a sound policy could effect—a course worthy of imitation, even now. All nations "were merchants of Tyre;" that is, all nations found it to their advantage to be on good terms with such a people; and it would be well if some of the nations of our own times could be persuaded to act on Tyrian principles, and if, instead of checking free intercourse by the imposition of high protective duties, they would do as Tyre did 2600 years ago, invite all nations to be their merchants.[2]
Carthage. Of all her colonies, Carthage was the one of which Tyre had the best reason to be proud. Situated on a peninsula, in Lat. 36° 55´ N., 10° 20´ E., with a long
- ↑ Diod. ii. 190.
- ↑ Xenophon, in his "Œconomics," c. 18, gives some interesting details of a large Phœnician merchant ship which he went over, when at anchor in the Piræeus. He appears to have entered into conversation with the "prow's-man" (who probably acted as supercargo), and to have been greatly surprised at the care with which everything was arranged, so that it could be got at at once. From the phraseology Xenophon uses it would seem that such a vessel came, in his day, annually to Athens. Heliodorus (v. 18) speaks, too, of the "beauty and magnitude of Phœnician ships."
