TYRANNUS (ty-ran'nusl. (Gr. T4pavvos,too'ran nos,sovereign),a sophist or rhetorician of Ephesus, who kept one of those schools of philosophy and eloquence so common at that period.
St. Paul preached for two years daily in his school after quitting the synagogue (Acts xix: 9). This proves that the school was Greek, not Jewish. It does not appear whether Tyrannus was himself a convert or not ; for it may be that he let to the Apostle the house or hall which he used: but it is more pleasant to suppose that he was a convert, and that the Apostle was hospita bly entertained by him and obtained the use of the hall in which he himself taught. (Ramsay, St. Paul 1). 271.) TYRE (tyre), (Hcb.11:1 or 'I'S', tsore ; Gr. T6pos, too'ros). Besides its antiquity, manufactures, col onies, and commerce, the city of Tyre claims at tention as frequently mentioned in Biblical histo ry, and still more on account of the prophecies of its overthrow, and their exact fulfillment. Its He brew name, tsore, which means a rock, was prob ably derived from its being at first founded for purposes of defense on a rocky hill. Our word Tyre and its Latin form Tyrus, which are used interchangeably in the A. V., as well as its Greek form too'-ros, are only slightly changed from the Aramxan form of the original Hebrew name.
The original position of Tyre was on the east ern coast of the Mediterranean, about midway between Egypt and Asia Minor, near the north western frontier of Palestine. It was a colony of Zidon, and was founded before the records of history. As early as the eleventh century before the advent of Christ, the Tyrians had become fa mous for skill in the arts.
(1) Hiram. About 1142 B. C. (2 Sam. v :it), their l:ing Hiram sent cedar trees to Jerusalem, and workmen who built David a house. A genera tion later, when Solomon, preparing to build the Temple, sent to the same monarch for similar assistance, he said to him It Kings v :6), 'Thou knowest that there is not us any that can skill to hew timber Eke unto the Sidonians.' He also (1 Kings vii :13) cent and fetched Hiram out of Tyre, a widow's son, filled with cunning to work all works in brass. In subsequent ages, every king coveted a rots of Tyrian purple, and Ezekiel (xxvii :16) speaks of 'the multitude of wares of its making,'--emeralds, purple, and broidered work, and fine linen, and coral, and agate.
(2) Commerce. The commerce of Tyre was commensurate with its manufactures. Situated at
the entry of the sea, it became a merchant of the people for many isles. It was inhabited by seafar ing men, and was styled by way of eminence 'the merchant city,' whose merchants were princes, whose traffickers were the honorable of the earth (Is. xxiii:8). Among the other Tyrian colonies, whither 'their own feet carried them afar off to sojourn,' were Cyprus, Utica, and Carthage. In the 27th chapter of Ezekiel, Syria, Persia, and Egypt, Spain, Greece, and every quarter of the ancient world, are portrayed hastening to lay their most precious things at the feet of Tyre, who sat enthroned on ivory, covered with blue and purple from the isles of Elishah; while the Gammadims were in her towers, hanged their shields upon her walls round about, and made her beauty per fect.
(3) Attacked by Assyria. Near the close of the eighth century before the Christian era, Shal maneser, the king of Assyria who captured Sa become a flourishing emporium for all the king doms of the world upon the face of the earth. `and heaped up silver as the dust, and fine gold as the mire of the streets,' was assailed by Alex ander the Great in the midst of his Oriental career of conquest. It sustained a siege of seven months, and was at length taken only by means of a mole, by which the island was turned into a peninsula, and rendered accessible by land forces. In con structing this mole Alexander made use of the ruins of the old city, and thereby fulfilled two prophecies. One was (Ezek. xxvi:t2), 'And they shall lay thy stones and thy timber and thy dust in the midst of the water.' The other was (verse 21), 'And thou shalt be no more: though thou be sought for, yet shalt thou never be found again, saith the Lord God.' So utterly were the ruins of old Tyre thrown into the sea, that its exact site is confessedly undeterminable, although the ruins of nearly fifty cities near Rome, which per ished almost 2,50o years ago, testify that the ex tinction of every trace of a city is a sort of miracle. Moreover, Alexander laid Tyre in ashes: thus accomplishing the prediction of Zechariah (ix :4), 'She shall be devoured with fire.' Besides, as ships from Tyre, out on a three years' voyage, maria, was led by cupidity to lay siege to Tyre. He cut off its supplies of water which aqueducts had furnished, but wells within the walls supplied their place; and at the end of five years he gave up his blockade as hopeless.