Nothing but myths have come down to us respecting the earlier period of its exist ence. History begins to dawn upon us with Abibal, the predecessor of the biblical Hiram, under whose rule (980-47 mac ) Tyre attained to its full glory and renown. An alliance with Solomon was also entered into; trading expeditions were undertaken jointly by the Israelites and the Phenicians. and Solomon is supposed even to have married Hiram's daughter. During Hiram's reign, Tyre was much enlarged and embel lished; and its two roadsteads and harbors, the wonders of the ancient world, probably date from the same period. He was followed, according to ancient writers, by Balas tartus; after him reigned, for brief periods, his four sons, by the murder of the last of whom the throne became hereditary in the house of Ithobaal, the Ethbaal of Scripture, whose daughter was married to Ahab. Tyre then appears to have gained the supremacy over Sidon, and also spread her colonies far and wide. Shortly after the death of this king. Carthage was refounded by Elissa (Dido), about 813 B.C., in consequence of a popular demonstration, which deprived her of the throne in favor of Pygmalion. This " new city" gradually diminished the importance of the old one; at least Tyre seems to have been weakened to such an extent by the emigration of its best elements, that it dis appears from history until the three great powers, Chaldea, Assyria, and Egypt, by turns endeavored to make themselves masters of the Tyro-Phenician coast, with its eastern and western trade. Shalmuneser, king of Assyria, reduced Tyre, after a long siege; and the whole of Phenicia, the most important places of which had already thrown otf their allegiance to Tyre, was rendered tributary to Assyria. During the Chaldeo-Egyptian struggle, Tyre, again at the head of the country, sided with Egypt, and was conquered by the Chaldeans. Once more the Phenicians attempted to throw -off the foreign yoke, and Nebuchadnezzar marched against them at the head of his armies. Having taken Jerusalem (5b7 n.c.), he reduced the whole sea-coast, except Tyre, which stood a thirteen years' siege by water and by land, ending, not in subjec tion, but only in a hind of apparent submission, leaving the native sovereigns on their thrones, and their wealth and power untouched. In 538 n.c., Cyrus became master of Phenicia, which at that time again stood under Babylonian supremacy, sod the hege mony was bestowed upon Sidon. For a long time, Phenicia prospered under wise
Persian rulers; but when Xerxes, in his Greek wars, had completely destroyed the Phe nician fleet, and exhausted nearly nil her resources, the exasperated inhabitants rose once more, but only to be utterly crushed. Sidon, at the head of the revolution, was Bred by its own inhabitants, and once more Tyre resumed the lead (350 no.). Having refused to pay allegiance to Alexander the great (after the battle at Issus), it was besieged by him in 332 D.C., and fell after a seven months' bard resistance. Alexander replaced the old inhabitants by new colonists, chiefly Carians, and though the city had sustained all but complete destruction, it yet rose again after a very brief period to wealth and power, and already in 315 D. c., was able to hold out for 18 months against Antigonus. Under the Romans, Cleopatra received Tyre as a present from Antony; but the last trace of its independent existence was taken from it by Augustus. A Christian community was founded there at an earlier period. The trade and manufactures of Tyre, aided by her exceptionally favorable naval position, insured for it, even under Roman dominion, a high place among its sister cities: and once more, in 193 A.D., it even took an active part in the contest between Septimius Severus and Pescennius Niger, which, resulting in the success of the former, brought back to it some of its ancient distinction. In St. Jerome's time, it was again the noblest and most beautiful city of Phenicia, nay, one of the most prosperous and noble cities in the whole east. In the 7th c., it came under the dominion of the Saracens, and so remained until taken by the crusaders; and in 1192 A.D. became the northern boundary of Christian territory in Palestine. It continued to Ilourish—still chiefly through its world-renowned purple—until 1516 A.D., when the con quest of Selint I., together with the newly discovered route to Asia by the cape of Good Hope, put an end to its wealth and commerce, and almost to its existence. Abliongh there has been a slight improvement in its prospects of late, the desolation and wretch edness of that once magnificent city are still most striking. From 3,C00 to 4,000 inhabi tants now dwell among the ruins of its ancient glory, finding scanty livelihood in insig nificant exports of tobacco, cotton, wool, and wood. Frederick Barbarossa and Origen are both buried here.