Chapter XVII: Part 17

Notwithstanding this, Cæsar forgave their offences against him, and enlarged their territory, confirmed their liberties, and granted them even additional privileges. Not only this; Suetonius relates, that it was currently reported, that he had contemplated the design of removing the seat of empire to Ilium, or Alexandria, and leaving Rome to be governed by lieutenants. Whether Cæsar really entertained such an idea is not certain; but it is quite certain that Augustus entertained a similar project; and perhaps he had actually put it in practice, had not Horace written an ode to dissuade him from it; and his councillors urgently followed the poet’s example, by the counsel they gave him.

During the reign of Tiberius, Ilium was visited by Germanicus. This visit is recorded by Tacitus. “On his return from the Euxine, he intended to visit Samothrace[286], famous for its rites and mysteries; but the wind springing up from the north, he was obliged to bear away from the coast. He viewed the ruins of Troy, and the remains of antiquity in that part of the world; renowned for so many turns of fortune, the theatre of illustrious actions, and the origin of the Roman people[287].”

When the Romans were delivered from the flattery that pursued the Julian line, of their being sprung from Troy, Ilium began to fall to decay; and in the time of Pliny the Elder, who flourished in the reign of Vespasian, many cities had perished. These are enumerated by him, and thence by Dr. Chandler:—“There has been Achilleum, a town near the tomb of Achilles, built by the Mitylenians, and afterwards by the Athenians. There has been Æantium, too, built by the Rhodians, near where Ajax was buried. Palæscepsis, Gergithos, Neandros, and Colone, had perished. Dardanus is still a small town. There had been a Larissa and a Chrysa. The Sminthean temple and Hamaxitus remained.” He mentions Troas Alexandria, a Roman colony; but this city, too, was on the decline; and as, in another place, he says, “very many mice came forth at Troas, insomuch that now they have driven the inhabitants away from thence.”

We pass over passages in the works of Lucian and Philostratus; since no confidence in respect to the real condition of Ilium can be placed in them. The extravagances of Caracalla are upon more respectable record. Terrified by several dreams he had had, Caracalla voyaged to Pergamum, to inquire of the god Æsculapius in what manner he could be relieved from them; from that city he passed to Ilium. “At Ilium,” says Chandler, on the authority of Herodian, “Caracalla was seized with a passion to imitate Achilles, as he had before done Alexander the Great. He wanted a Patroclus, whose funeral he might solemnize; when, during his stay there, Festus, his remembrancer and favourite freedman, died of a distemper; but so opportunely, that others said he was taken off by poison for the purpose. Caracalla ordered, after the example of Achilles, a large pile of wood to be collected. The body was carried forth from the city, and placed on it in the middle. He slew a variety of animals as victims. He set fire to the pile; and, holding a phial in his hand, and pouring a libation, as Achilles had done, invoked the winds to come and consume it. His seeking, for he was nearly bald, a lock of hair to throw into the flames, excited laughter; but the little which he had he cut off. He is said to have continued the farce, by allotting prizes for games; and to have concluded it, by imagining that he had taken Troy, and distributing money among his soldiers on the occasion.”

In the age of Gallienus, and in that subsequent, Ilium and the Troas were twice ravaged by the Goths.

The project of Constantine the Great is now to be referred to. It is thus related by Sozomenus, translated by Mr. Dalzell:—“Having taken possession of the plain, which lies before Ilium, near the Hellespont, beyond the tomb of Ajax, where the Greeks, at the time that they were engaged in the expedition against Troy, are said to have had a station for their ships and tents, he there traced the outline and ground-plot of a city; and he constructed gates in a conspicuous place; which still at this day are seen at sea by those who sail along the west. While he was employed in this undertaking, God appeared to him by night, and warned him to go in quest of another place.” The Deity, also, is said to have conducted him to Byzantium, and commanded him to establish his residence there, to enlarge the town into a city, and to call it by his own name.

From this period, little is related of Ilium, or the Troas, commanding any peculiar interest, till the period when both became possessed by another, and, till then, an unknown people. It is related in the annals of this new and strange people, that Soliman, son of Orchan, taking an airing on horseback, in the country, lately conquered, came to some fine ruins of edifices, which had remained there from the time of the destruction of Troy, and which he beheld with wonder. After viewing these ruins, he was observed to remain musing and silent. On being asked the reason, he answered that he was considering how the sea between them and the opposite coast could be crossed, without the knowledge of the Christians. Two of his retinue offered to pass over privately at the strait, which is described as a Greek mile wide. A fleet was provided, they landed before day-break, and lay concealed among vines; until, a Greek coming by, they seized, and returned with him to the emperor; who gave orders that their captive should be kindly treated; and, on his undertaking to serve as a guide to the castle erected by Justinian, above Sestos, caused trees to be cut down, and a large raft to be constructed; on which, with about fourscore men, Soliman crossed the strait; and arriving, under colour of night, at the fortress, found, without the entrance—such was the supine negligence and security of the Greeks,—a dunghill as high as the wall. His soldiers mounted over it, and easily got possession of the place; the people, a few exempted, being engaged abroad in the harvest-work. Thus did the Turks obtain their first footing in Europe, (A. D. 1357.)

“If we reflect,” says Dr. Chandler; to whose pages not only ourselves, but all the encyclopedias have been so largely indebted on all articles relating to the Troas; “if we reflect on the ravages, committed on the borders of the Hellespont, and on the destruction of the cities there, we shall not be surprised, that the coasts are desolate, and that the interior country of the Troas, returned nearly to its more ancient state, is occupied almost entirely by villages, herdsmen, and shepherds; who are no longer distinguished by the appellation of Ilians, Dardanians, Cebrenians, and so on; but as Greeks and Turks, or Turcomans, slaves, the masters and their dependants. The ancient places, which we have noticed, and of which few remain, or have possessed any consequence under the Turks, have all of them, especially those by the sea-side, been ransacked and plundered of their materials, for a long series of years. Constantinople has been adorned or enlarged from their stores, as well under the Roman and the Greek as the Mahometan emperors. Towns and villages, which have risen in their vicinity, public baths, mosques, castles, and other edifices, have been constructed from their relics; and the Turkish burying-grounds, which are often very extensive, are commonly rich in broken pillars and marble fragments, once belonging to them. The Troia had been left in ruins; and was a desert, in the time of Strabo. Since, in many instances, the very _ruins have perished_: but the desert remains; and, as then, still affords much, and that no vulgar matter for a writer.”

These remarks lead us, naturally, to that part of our subject, which relates to the present state in which these ruins lie. So much, however, has been written on the subject of Troy, and so many different opinions have been started, that the subject has become no little embarrassing; and the more so, since the compiler of these pages has not been on the scene of observation himself. In this dilemma, he thinks the wisest and best course is, to select such passages and descriptions as appear to him the most probable, and therefore the most characteristic of truth; leaving all references to the individual authorities to a general acknowledgment at the end.

It seems hardly to admit of doubt, that the plain of Anatolia, watered by the Mendar,[288] and backed by a mountainous ridge, of which Kazdaghy is the summit, is the precise territory, alluded to and described by Homer. And this is rendered the more probable, since Homer’s description contained certain prominent and remarkable features, not likely to be affected by any lapse of time. To increase the probability of this, the text of Strabo is considered very important; more especially as it illustrates, to a certain degree, even the position of Troy itself: for that it was not altogether unknown, in the time of Augustus, is proved by that celebrated geographer, who, more than once, expressly assigns to the ancient city the place then occupied by the village of the Iliensians. “Ilus,” says he, “did not build the city where it now is; but nearly thirty stadia farther eastward, towards Ida, and Dardania, where the Iliensian village is now situated.” This locality of Ilium has been discovered by Dr. Clarke, in the remains of that city. Crossing the Mendar, over a wooden bridge, that celebrated traveller entered an immense plain, in which some Turks were hunting wild boars. Proceeding then towards the east, and round the bay, distinctly pointed out by Strabo as the harbour in which the Grecian fleet was stationed, he arrived at the sepulchre of Ajax. Around this tomb Alexander is described as having performed rites, and made offerings. In former times, it was surmounted by a shrine, in which was preserved the statue of the hero. This statue Antony stole and took with him into Egypt; but, having been recovered by Augustus, it was by him restored to its ancient shrine; which, with a considerable portion of the structure, still remains. “It is impossible,” says Dr. Clarke, “to view its sublime and simple form, without calling to mind the veneration so long paid to it; without picturing to the imagination a successive series of kings, and heroes, and mariners, who, from the Hellespont, or by the shores of Troas and Chersonesus, or on the sepulchre itself, poured forth the tribute of their homage; and finally, without representing to the mind the feelings of a native or of a traveller, in those times, who, after viewing the existing monument, and witnessing the instances of public and of private regard, so constantly bestowed upon it, should have been told, the age was to arrive when the existence of Troy, and of the mighty dead, entombed upon its plain, would be considered as having no foundation in truth.” The view of the Hellespont, and the plain of Troy, from the top of this tomb, is one of the finest the country affords; and, travellers have the pleasure of seeing poppies and mezereons, and the field-star of Bethlehem, growing upon it.

From this spot the traveller passes over a heathy country to a village called Habil Elly, where he finds the remains of a temple, which seems to be those of ten temples rather than one. Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian capitals, lie dispersed in every direction, and some of them are of great beauty. On these are many inscriptions; amongst which are these remarkable words:—“_The Ilians to their country’s God, Æneas._”

From these ruins you proceed through a dilapidated valley, full of vineyards and almond-trees; and, after a space, you find the remains of an ancient paved way. You then come to the village of Tchiblack, where you see many remains of ancient sculpture in a state of disorder and ruin. The most remarkable are those upon the top of a hill near the village, in the middle of a grove of oak trees. Here the ruins of a Doric temple, formed of white marble, lay heaped, mixed with sarcophagi, cippæ, stelæ, cornices, and capitals of large size, pillars, and entablatures. The village near which all these are, is supposed to be no other than ancient Ilium! of “Troy divine.” On these fragments are to be read various inscriptions.

At no great distance, of a high, conical, and regular shape, a tumulus stands, insulated. It is of great antiquity. On the southern side of its base is a long natural mound of limestone. It is, we are told, of such height, that an army encamped on the eastern side of it would be concealed from all observation of persons, stationed upon the coast, by the mouth of the Mendar. On the surface of the tomb itself are found fragments of the vases of ancient Greece;—a circumstance, attributed to the veneration paid to the tombs of Troas, in all the ages of history, until the introduction of Christianity.

At some distance from this tomb is another tumulus, less considerable. There are ruins, also, on the southern side of the water, called Callifat[289].

These consist of beautiful Doric pillars, whose capitals and shafts are of the finest white marble. Among them, also, are entire shafts of granite. As the temples of Jupiter were always of the Doric order, these are supposed to have belonged to a temple dedicated to that deity. Among these ruins was found an inscription, which Dr. Clarke sent to Cambridge. This is as old as the archonship of Euclid. It was on the lower part of a plain marble pillar; the interpretation of which sets forth, that “those partaking of the sacrifice, and of the games, and of the whole festival, honoured Pytha, daughter of Scamandrotimus, native of Ilium, who performed the office of Canephoros, in an exemplary and distinguished manner, for her piety towards the goddess.”

In the village of Callifat there are several capitals of Corinthian pillars. Medals, too, are sometimes dug up there; not of ancient Troy, however, but of the Roman emperors. Not far from Callifat are also to be seen traces of an ancient citadel. These are the remains of a city, called New Ilium[290]. “We stand,” says Dr. Clarke, “with Strabo, upon the very spot, whence he deduced his observations, concerning other objects in the district; looking down upon the Simoisian plain, and viewing the junction of the two rivers (‘one flowing towards Sigeum, and the other towards Rhætium,’ precisely as described by him), in front of the Iliensian city.”

From the national and artificial elevation of the territory on which this city stood, this accomplished traveller saw almost every landmark to which that author alludes. “The splendid spectacle,” says he, “presented towards the west by the snow-clad top of Samothrace, towering behind Imbrus, would baffle every attempt at delineation. It rose with indescribable grandeur beyond all I had seen of a long time; and whilst its ethereal summit shone with inconceivable brightness in a sky without a cloud, seemed, notwithstanding its remote situation, as if its vastness would overwhelm all Troas, should an earthquake heave it from its base.”

Besides these, there are various tumuli in the Troas, which are distinguished by the names of Homer’s heroes; the tomb of Achilles, for instance, and two others, near the Sigæan promontory, mentioned by Strabo, Ælian, and Diodorus Siculus. When Alexander came to visit these, he anointed the Hêle of Achilles with perfumes; and, as we have already related, ran naked around it, according to the custom of honouring the manes of a hero in ancient times. One of the other tombs was that of Patroclus. Alexander crowned the one, and his friend Hephæstion the other[291].

There, on the green and village-cotted hill, is
(Flanked by the Hellespont and by the sea)
Entomb’d the bravest of the brave, Achilles.
They say so;—(Bryant says the contrary.)
And further downward, tall and towering, still is
The tumulus—of whom? Heaven knows; ‘t may be
Patroclus, Ajax, or Protesilaus;
All heroes, who, if living still, would slay us.

High barrows, without mark, or name,
A vast, untill’d, and mountain-skirted plain,
And Ida in the distance, still the same;
And old Scamander (if ’tis he) remain:
The situation still seemed formed for fame;
A hundred thousand men might fight again
With ease; but where they fought for Ilion’s walls,
The quiet sheep feed, and the tortoise crawls.

These tombs have been so celebrated in all ages, that we give place, willingly, to a description of them by Mr. Franklin; more particularly as he has mentioned several particulars, unnoticed by other travellers.

Not far from the site of Ilium are to be observed a number of antiquities, fragments of Doric and Ionic pillars of marble, some columns of granite, broken bas-reliefs, and, “in short,” says Dr. Clarke, “those remains so profusely scattered over this extraordinary country, serving to prove the number of cities and temples once the boast of Troas.”

At no great distance is the steep, which some have supposed the spot on which stood the citadel of Priam. On the edge of this is a tumulus, ninety-three yards in circumference, which is called the tomb of Hector; it is formed entirely of loose stones. From this spot the whole isle of Tenedos is seen, and a most magnificent prospect of the course of Scamander to the sea, with all Troas, and every interesting object it contains.

Rather more than one hundred and twenty paces from this tumulus is another tumulus; the base of this is one hundred and thirty-three yards in circumference. Some little way from this is a third, ninety yards in circumference. The former is called the tomb of Priam; the latter the tomb of Paris. At a short distance farther on are beheld foundations of buildings; but these are not supposed to be of any high antiquity, nor even so high as to be classed with a Roman interdict. They are therefore, with probability, assigned to those pirates which at different times have infested the Hellespont. Near them are tumuli of much higher antiquity; but whether they belong to Trojan times, or to those in which the Milesians formed settlements on the coast, is not determined.

Four hours’ distance from Bonarbashy, situated on the Scamander, is a town called Æné, the Æneia of Strabo. It is ornamented with cypresses, and backed by lofty rocks and mountains. In this town medals have been found, and some have supposed that Æneas was buried here; it is, however, more probable that the town was named after him.

On a hill, in the shape of a cone, at about two hours’ distance from Beyramitch, towards Gargarus, are a vast quantity of substances for building; they may be traced from the bottom to the summit. These are supposed to have constituted a temple and altar of Jupiter; the work seems to be Roman. On the western extremity of the area are remains of baths, the walls of which are stuccoed; and there are remaining earthenware conduits still entire in several places. Above this are tombs, and close to them a bath; near which lie scattered about several columns, with broken pieces of amphoræ, marble, basalt, granite, jasper, and blue chalcedony. At no great distance off lies the cornice of a Doric entablature, so large, that M. Preaux said he had seen nothing like it at Athens. Higher up are the remains of another temple, the area of which measures one hundred and forty yards long and forty-four wide. These are supposed to be the temple and altars of Jupiter mentioned by Homer, Æschylus, and Plutarch. From this spot the view is represented as being exceedingly grand. “Immediately before the eye is spread the whole of Gargarus, seeming, from its immense size and the vastness of its features, as if those who were stationed on this spot might hold converse with persons upon its clear and sunny summit. Far below is seen the bed and valley of the Scamander.”

What kind of a scene is beheld from Gargarus may be, in some measure, imagined from what Dr. Clarke says of it. “In a few minutes I stood upon the summit. What a spectacle! All European Turkey, and the whole of Asia Minor, seemed as it were modelled before me on a vast surface of glass. The great objects drew my attention first. The eye, roaming to Constantinople, beheld all the sea of Marmora, the mountains of Prusa, with Asiatic Olympus, and all the surrounding territory; comprehending, in one wide survey, all Propontis and the Hellespont, with the shores of Thrace and Chersonesus, all the north of the Egean, Mount Athos, the islands of Imbrus, Samothrace, Lemnos, Tenedos, and all beyond, even to Eubœa; the gulf of Smyrna, almost all Mysia, and Bithynia, with part of Lydia and Ionia. Looking down upon Troas, it appeared spread as a lawn before me.”

In the same district are considerable remains of the ancient city Alexandria Troas. Long before the extinction of the Greek empire, this city was laid under perpetual obligation to contribute, by its monuments of ancient splendour, towards the public structures of Constantinople. Notwithstanding this, there are still some interesting remains; among which is to be noted the aqueduct of Herodes Atticus, formed of blocks of hewn stone of vast size. Part of one of its gates also remains; consisting of two round towers, with square basements, supporting pedestals for statues. At a few yards’ distance are the ruins of public baths. “Broken marble soroi lie about;” says the intelligent traveller to whom, in this account, we have been so largely indebted; “soroi of such prodigious size, that their fragments seem as rocks among the Valany oaks covering the soil. But in all that now exists of this devoted city, there is nothing so conspicuous as the edifice, vulgarly termed by the mariners the _Palace of Priam_; from an erroneous notion, prevalent in the writings of early travellers, that Alexandria Troas was the Ilium of Homer.”

This building has three noble arches in front, and there are many others behind. The stones with which it is constructed are placed without any cement; and the whole appear to have been once coated over with marble. There are, also, the bases of columns, each eight feet in diameter. This building is supposed to have been intended for baths, as a grand terminus of the aqueduct of Atticus.

There are other vestiges, also, of this city, amongst which may be mentioned a series of vaults and subterranean chambers, one beneath another, now serving as sheds for tenders, and herds of goats. Towards the south-west there are remains also of an immense theatre, still in a state of considerable preservation. Its diameter is two hundred and fifty feet, and there is a semicircular range of seats at each extremity. Towards the port, lower down, are marble soroi, and other antiquities of less importance.

From this spot, Dr. Clarke proceeded to an immense tumulus, called after Æsyates, the situation of which, he says, perfectly agrees with the account given of that monument by Strabo. He then descended again into the vale of Troy, and arrived at a village, called Erkessy, in which he found a marble soros, quite entire. Upon it is an inscription in Greek, beautifully cast, and in a very perfect state. “_Aurelius Agethopodos Othoniacus, and the son of Aurelius, who was also a Pancratiast, of whom there is a hollow statue in the temple of Smintheus, and here in the Temple of Æsculapius, I have placed this Soros for myself and my dearest father, the afore-written Amelius Paulinus and to my descendants. But if any one shall dare to open this Soros, and lay in it the dead body of any other, or any man’s bones, he shall pay, as a fine to the city of the Troadenses, two thousand five hundred drachms, and to the most sacred Treasury as much more._”

At no great distance from this soros, Dr. Clarke found a village, the inhabitants of which live with great cleanliness in small cottages, and practising the customs of their forefathers, in their hospitality to strangers. They presented him with a medal, found in their village; and they showed him a marble, on which was an inscription in Greek characters, implying, that “_Metrodorus of Amphipolis, the son of Timocles, is praised by the senate and people, for his virtue and good-will towards the king Antiochus and Seleucus and the people: he is deemed a benefactor to the state; is to have access to the senate; and to be inscribed into the tribe and fraternity to which he may wish to belong_[292].”

NO. XL.—TYRE.

Tyre is, in Scripture, called “the daughter of Sidon,” and very appropriately; for the Tyrians were, in the first instance, a colony from Sidon. It was built two hundred and forty years before the building of Jerusalem.

The king of Tyre assisted Solomon in procuring wood for his temple, and artisans wherewith to build it. Thus it is stated, in the Book of Chronicles:—

“3. And Solomon sent to Huram, the king of Tyre, saying, As thou
didst deal with David my father, and didst send him cedars to build
him an house to dwell therein, even so deal with me.

“4. Behold, I build an house to the name of the Lord my God, to
dedicate it to him, and to burn before him sweet incense, and for the
continual shewbread, and for the burnt offerings morning and evening,
on the sabbaths, and on the new moons, and on the solemn feasts of
the Lord our God. This is an ordinance for ever to Israel.

* * * * *

“7. Send me now therefore a man cunning to work in gold, and in
silver, and in brass, and in iron, and in purple, and crimson, and
blue, and that can skill to grave with the cunning men that are with
me in Judah and in Jerusalem, whom David my father did provide.

“8. Send me also cedar-trees, fir-trees, and algum-trees, out of
Lebanon; for I know that thy servants can skill to cut timber in
Lebanon; and, behold, my servants shall be with thy servants.

“9. Even to prepare me timber in abundance: for the house which I am
about to build shall be wonderful great.

“10. And, behold, I will give to thy servants, the hewers that cut
timber, twenty thousand measures of beaten wheat, and twenty thousand
measures of barley, and twenty thousand baths of wine, and twenty
thousand baths of oil.

“11. Then Huram the king of Tyre answered in writing, which he sent to
Solomon, Because the Lord hath loved his people, he hath made thee
king over them.

“12. Huram said moreover, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, that made
heaven and earth, who hath given to David the king a wise son, endued
with prudence and understanding, that might build an house for the
Lord, and an house for his kingdom.

“13. And now I have sent a cunning man, endued with understanding, of
Huram my father’s,

“14. The son of a woman of the daughters of Dan; and the father was a
man of Tyre, skilful to work in gold, and in silver, in brass, in
iron, in stone, and in timber, in purple, in blue, and in fine linen,
and in crimson; also to grave any manner of graving, and to find out
every device which shall be put to him, with thy cunning men, and
with the cunning men of my lord David thy father.

“15. Now therefore the wheat, and the barley, the oil, and the wine,
which my lord hath spoken of, let him send unto his servants:

“16. And we will cut wood out of Lebanon, as much as thou shalt need:
and we will bring it to thee in floats by sea to Joppa; and thou
shalt carry it up to Jerusalem.”

Various are the opinions concerning the origin of Tyre, and the date when it was founded. Herodotus (lib. ii. c. 44) says, that he was told by the priests of Tyre, that the temple of Hercules was as ancient as the city, which had been built two thousand three hundred years. According to this account, Tyre was founded about the year two thousand seven hundred and sixty before the Christian era; four hundred and sixty-nine years after the deluge, according to the Septuagint[293].

Before the captivity of the Jews in Babylon, Tyre was the greatest maritime city in the world; its situation and industry having raised it to the sovereignty of the sea. From the extreme parts of India, Persia, and Arabia, to the western coast; from Ethiopia and Egypt on the south, to Scythia on the north, all nations contributed to the increase of its power, splendour, and wealth. Every thing that was useful, and all that was curious, magnificent, and precious, were there to be sold. Every article of commerce was brought to its markets.

This state of prosperity swelled the pride of the Tyrians to a very exorbitant extent. “She delighted,” we are told, “to consider herself as Queen of Cities; a queen, whose head is adorned with a diadem; whose correspondents are illustrious princes; whose rich traders dispute for superiority with kings; who sees every maritime power, either as her allies or her dependents; and who made herself necessary or formidable to all nations.” Such was the pride of Tyre, when Nebuchadnezzar marched up against her.

Her fate had been foretold by the denunciations of Ezekiel.

“I am against thee, O Tyrus, and will cause many nations to come up
against thee, as the sea causes her waves to come up. And they shall
destroy the walls of Tyrus, and break down her towers. It shall be a
place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea; and her
daughters shall be slain by the sword.” The prophet then discloses
who shall be the instrument of all this destruction. “I will bring
upon Tyrus Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, a king of kings, with
horses, and with chariots, and with horsemen, and companies of much
people.” “He shall set his engines of war against thy walls, and with
his axes he shall break down thy towers.” “With the hoofs of thy
horses shall he tread down all thy streets; he shall slay thy people
with the sword, and thy strong garrisons shall go down to the
ground.” “And they shall make a spoil of thy riches, and make a prey
of thy merchandise; and they shall break down thy walls, and destroy
thy pleasant houses; and they shall lay thy stones, and thy timber,
and thy dust, in the midst of the water.” “I will cause the noise of
thy songs to cease; and the sound of thy harps shall be no more
heard.” “Thou shalt be a place to hang nets upon; and shalt be built
no more.” “Though thou be sought for, thou shall not be found.”

The pride of the Tyrians may be estimated by the splendour of their ships. These were frequently of cedar; their benches of ivory; fine embroidered linens of Egypt were used for sails; and their canopies were of scarlet and purple silk[294]. Its trade may be in some degree imagined, from what is stated as having been brought to her markets;—gold, silver, iron, tin, brass, and lead; slaves[295]; horses, horsemen, and mules; sheep and goats; horn, ivory, and ebony; emeralds, purple, and broidered work; fine linen, and coral, and agate;—wheat, honey, oil, and bales of wares, wine, and wool; cassia and calamus; cloths for chariots; all manner of spices and precious stones. All these articles were to be destroyed. “Thy riches and thy merchandise, thy mariners and thy pilots, thy calkers, and the occupiers of thy merchandise, and all thy men of war that are in thee, and in all thy company which is in the midst of thee, shall fall into the midst of the seas, in the days of thy ruin.”

The Prophet then goes on to prophesy how all the nations shall mourn for her fall. “Shall not the isles shake at the sound of thy fall, when the wounded cry; when the slaughter is made in the midst of thee? All the princes of the sea shall come down from their thrones, and lay away their robes, and put off their embroidered garments; they shall clothe themselves with trembling; they shall sit upon the ground, and shall tremble at every moment, and shall be astonished at thee.”

Tyre was besieged by Nebuchadnezzar, in the twenty-first year of his reign; Ithobel being its king. After seven years he made himself master of it; not without his troops suffering incredible hardships; insomuch that, as Ezekiel had predicted, “_every head was made bald and every head was peeled_.” Previous, however, to the taking of it, a multitude of its inhabitants quitted the city, and took up their abode, with the greatest part of their effects, in the neighbouring island[296], half a mile from the shore; and in that spot they laid the foundation of a new city. When, therefore, Nebuchadnezzar took possession of the town, he found little in it to reward him for the trouble, danger, and expense he had been at during the siege, which lasted thirteen years. He rased the city to the foundations, and it was afterwards known only as a village, by the name of Palæ-Tyrus (ancient Tyre): the new one rose to greater power than the former one.

The new town, nevertheless, was not remitted of misfortune; for the inhabitants were made slaves of, compelled to admit a foreign yoke, and this for the space of seventy years. After the expiration of that time, they were restored, according to the prophecy of Isaiah,[297] to the possession of their ancient privileges, with the liberty of having a king of their own, and that liberty they enjoyed till the time of Alexander.

At that period Tyre had again become an exceedingly large city; and because of the vast commerce she carried on with all nations, she was called “Queen of the Sea.” She boasted of having first invented navigation, and taught mankind the art of braving the waves and wind. Her happy situation, the extent and conveniency of her ports, the character of her inhabitants, who were not only industrious, laborious, and patient, but extremely courteous to strangers, invited thither merchants from all parts of the then-known world: so that it might be considered, not so much as a city belonging to any particular nation, as the common city of all nations, and the centre of their commerce.

Tyre had now for some time risen from the desolation, into which she had fallen: but with prosperity came pride, and vain-glory; luxury and voluptuousness. Another prophet, therefore, foretold to her a second ruin. She was now “the crowning city,” whose merchants were princes, and whose traffickers were styled “the honourable of the earth.”

Tyre had profited nothing from the first lesson: Another destruction, therefore, was denounced against her. This was to come from Chittim (Macedonia). Tyre was careless of this threat. Defended by strong fortifications, and surrounded on all sides by the sea, she feared nothing; neither God nor man. Isaiah, therefore, brings to her recollection the ruin, that had befallen them in the days of Nebuchadnezzar; and the destruction which had afterwards fallen on Babylon itself. “The inhabitants had raised pompous palaces, to make their names immortal; but all those fortifications had become but as dens for wild beasts to revel in.” “The Lord hath purposed it to stain all the pride of all glory, and to bring into contempt all the honourable of the earth.” “The Lord hath given a commandment against the merchant city, to destroy the strong-holds thereof.” “Thou shalt no more rejoice, thou virgin daughter of Zidon.” This fall was to come, as we have already said, from Macedon.

Alexander besieged Tyre seven months;[298] during which time he erected vast mounds of earth, plied it with his engines, and invested it on the side next the sea with two hundred galleys. When the Tyrians saw this fleet, they were astonished; because it greatly exceeded what they had any reason to expect. They had had in contemplation to send most of their women and children, with all the men, who were past the military age, to Carthage: but, confident in their strength, they had delayed doing so; and now they could not spare ships or seamen to transport them.

A vessel coming from Sidon, they seized upon the crew, led them to a part of the wall, from which they could have a full view of the besieging army, then maliciously put them to death, and threw their dead bodies over the wall. This greatly enraged the Macedonian: and he soon after took possession of the city. According to Plutarch, the siege terminated in the following manner:—Alexander had permitted his main body to rest themselves, after some great fatigues they had undergone, and ordered only some small parties to keep the Tyrians in play. In the mean time, Aristander, his principal soothsayer, offered sacrifices; and one day, upon inspecting the entrails of the victims, he boldly asserted, amongst those about him, that the city would be taken that month. As the day happened to be the last of the month, this prediction was received with great ridicule. Alexander perceiving the soothsayer to be disconcerted, and having always made a point of bringing the prophecies of his soothsayers to completion, he gave orders that the day should not be called the thirtieth, but the twenty-eighth of the month. At the same time he called out his forces by sound of trumpet, and made a much more vigorous assault than he at first intended. The attack was violent, and those who were left in the camp, quitted it to have a share in it, and to support their fellow soldiers; insomuch that the Tyrians were forced to give in; and the city was taken that very day; seven thousand being slain.[299]

The king, with many of the principal men, took refuge in the temple of Hercules. The lives and liberties of these were spared; but all others taken, to the number of thirteen thousand,[300] were sold to slavery for the benefit of the conquering army. To the eternal ignominy of the conqueror, too, all the children and women were made slaves of, and all the young men, that survived the battle, to the amount of two thousand, were crucified along the sea-shore. The annals of no nation exhibit an atrocity equal to this! The city was burned to the ground.

In reference to this stout defence of the Tyrians against so accomplished a warrior as Alexander, and their maritime enterprises, a highly eminent scholar has made the following remarks[301]:—“Let us contemplate all these great things, as completed by the efforts of a single city, which, possibly, did not possess a territory of twenty miles in circumference, which sustained a siege of thirteen years against all the power of Babylon; and another of eight months against Alexander, in the full career of his victories; and then judge whether a commercial spirit debases the nature of man, or whether any single city, recorded in history, is worthy to be compared with Tyre.”

The buildings were spacious and magnificent; above all, the temples of Jupiter, Hercules, and Astarte. These were built by Huram. The walls were one hundred and fifty feet high, proportionably broad, and firmly built of large blocks of stone, bound together with white plaster.

When the conqueror had satiated his vengeance, he rebuilt it, and planted it anew with people, drawn from the neighbouring parts; chiefly that he might, in future times, be called the founder of Tyre.

In the year 313 B. C. this new city sustained a siege against Antigonus; for soon after the death of Eumenes, Antigonus formed designs against Tyre, Joppa, and Gaza. The two last soon submitted; but Tyre gave him great trouble. Being master of all the other ports on the Phœnician coasts, he caused a vast number of trees to be cut down on Mount Libanus,—cedars and cypress trees of great height and beauty; and these were conveyed to the different ports, where he commanded a number of ships to be built, and where he employed in that object several thousand men. With these, and other ships he received from Rhodes, Cyprus, and other places, he made himself master of the sea. Tyre was, therefore, reduced to great extremities. The fleet of Antigonus cut off all communication of provisions, and the city was soon after compelled to capitulate. It was no longer than nineteen years before this event, that Alexander had destroyed this city in a manner as made it natural to believe it would require whole ages to re-establish it; and yet, in so short a time as that we speak of, it became capable of sustaining this new siege, which lasted more than as long again as that of Alexander. This circumstance discovers the great resources derived from commerce; for this was the only expedient by which Tyre rose out of its ruins, and recovered most of its former splendour.

Isaiah had foretold that Tyre should lie in obscurity and oblivion for seventy years[302]. This term being expired, it recovered its former credit; and, at the same time, recovered again its former vices. At length, according to another passage in the same prophecy[303], converted by the preaching of the Christians, it became a holy and religious city.

After this period it belonged to several masters, till the time when it was taken possession of by Antiochus the Great, B. C. 218.

Afterwards it became subject to the Seleucidæ. It was then sold to a Roman, named Marion, whose wealth was so great, that he was enabled to purchase the whole principality. It was still in repute in the time of Christ, and is, therefore, several times mentioned in the New Testament.

“Woe unto thee, Chorazin! Woe unto thee, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment than for you.”—_Matthew_, ch. xi. ver. 21.

“And from Jerusalem, and from Idumea, and from beyond Jordan; and they about Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude, when they had heard what great things he did, came to him.”—_Mark_, ch. iii. ver. 8. _Luke_, ch. vi. ver. 17.

“And Herod was highly displeased with them of Tyre and Sidon; but they came with one accord to him, and having made Blastus, the king’s chamberlain, their friend, desired peace, because their country was nourished by the king’s country.”—_Acts_, ch. xi. ver. 20.

Tyre, in the time of Pliny:—“Tyrus, in the olden time an island, lying almost three quarters of a mile within the deep sea; but now, through the skill and labour of Alexander at the siege of it, joined to the main land. It is greatly renowned; for out of it have come three other cities of ancient name;—viz., Leptis, Utica, and that great Carthage, which so long strove with the empire of Rome, for the monarchy and dominion of the whole world. Not only these, but the Gades, divided, as it were, from the rest of the earth, were peopled from thence. Now, all its glory and reputation arise out of its dye purple and crimson colours. The compass of it is nineteen miles, if Palæ-tyrus be included in it.”

There was a style of architecture called Tyrian; and of this order Sir C. Wren supposes was the theatre; by the fall of which, Samson made so great a slaughter of the Philistines. “In considering what this fabric must be,” says he[304], “that could at one pull be demolished, I conceive it an oval amphitheatre, the scene in the middle, where a vast roof of cedar-beams, resting round upon the walls, centered all upon one short architrave, that united two cedar pillars in the middle. One pillar would not be sufficient to unite the ends of at least one hundred beams that tended to a centre; therefore, I say, there must be a short architrave resting upon two pillars, upon which all the beams tending to the centre of the amphitheatre might be supported. Now, if Samson, by his miraculous strength, pressing upon one of these pillars, moved it from its basis, the whole roof must of necessity fall.” The most observable monument of the Tyrian style is the sepulchre of Absalom, over against Jerusalem, in the valley of Jehosaphat.

When Tyre fell into the hands of the Romans, it did not cease to be a flourishing city. It was made the metropolis of a province by the emperor Hadrian, who repaired its fortifications, and gave it all the advantages of a Roman colony.

About A. D. 639, it fell from the dominion of Rome into the hands of the Saracens, who remained a considerable time in possession of it.

On this capture most of the inhabitants emigrated to Acre. It still remains, we are told by Mr. Addison, in nearly the same state in which they abandoned it, with the addition of about a hundred new stone buildings, occupying a small space to the north of the peninsula contiguous to the port. Many parts of the double wall, which encompassed the island, are still visible, and attest the strength of its ancient foundations. The isthmus is so completely covered with sand, washed up by the sea, on either side, that none but those, acquainted with the history of Tyre, would suppose it to be the work of man. The peninsula is about a mile long, and half a mile broad; and its surface is covered with the foundations of buildings, now nearly all in ruins. On the western side, where the ground is somewhat more elevated than the rest, is a citadel, which Mr. Addison naturally supposes, occupies the site of the ancient one. On the eastern side, he goes on to observe, are the remains of a Gothic church, built by the crusaders, of materials belonging to the temple of Jupiter Olympus, which was destroyed by Constantine the Great, or that of Hercules, the tutelary deity of the ancient Tyrians. Of this only part of the choir remains. The interior is divided into three aisles, separated by rows of columns of red granite; of a kind nowhere else known in Syria. At the extremities of the two branches of the cross were two towers, the ascent to which was by a spiral staircase, which still remains entire. Djezzar, who stripped all this country to ornament his mosque at Acre, wished to carry them away; but his engineers were not able even to move them. This is supposed to have been the cathedral, of which Eusebius speaks, calling it the most magnificent temple in Phœnicia, and in which the famous William of Tyre was the first archbishop.

In the second century, it became a bishop’s see; and St. Jerome says, that in his time it was not only the most famous and beautiful city of Phœnicia, but a mart for all the nations of the world. It was dependent upon the patriarch of Antioch; but the see had no less than fourteen suffragans.

In 1112, Tyre was besieged by the crusaders; also again in 1124. It was successfully attacked by Saladin, in 1192; but in 1291, Kabil, sultan of the Mamelukes, obtained it by capitulation, and rased its forts.

Tyre is now called Sur or Sour. For this name several explanations have been given. We shall select the most probable, and these are by Volney, and Dr. Shaw. “In the name Sour,” says Volney, “we recognise that of Tyre, which we receive from the Latin; but if we recollect, that the _y_ was formerly pronounced _ou_; and observe, that the Latins have substituted the _t_ for θ of the Greeks, and that the θ had the sound of _th_, in the word _think_, we shall be less surprised at the alteration. This has not happened among the Orientals, who have always called this place ‘Tsour,’ and ‘Sour.’”

Dr. Shaw gives a different interpretation:—“All the nations of the Levant call Tyre by its ancient name _Sur_, from whence the Latins seem to have borrowed their _Sarra_. Sur, I find, layeth claim to a double interpretation, each of them very natural; though its rocky situation will prevail, I am persuaded, with every person who seeth this peninsula, beyond the _Sar_, or purple fish, for which it might afterwards be in such esteem. The purple fish (the method, at least, of extracting the tincture,) hath been wanting for many ages; however, amongst a variety of other shells, the Purpura of Rondeletius is very common upon the sea shore.”

“The Arabians,” says Mr. Drummond, “have always called Tyre _Al Sur_, the palm-tree. (Gol. _in voce_.) Hence, perhaps, the Greeks gave the name of Phœnix to this tree, as being the natural production of Phœnice; and as being the common emblem both of the Phœnicians and of their colonists. It may have happened, then, that ancient Tyre, which was situated in a plain, may have been called _Al Sur_, as the place where the palm-tree flourished.”

Perhaps another explanation may be still more probable. Sanchoniathon, as reported by Philo Byllius, tells us that Tyre was first inhabited by Hyp-_sour_-anios, and that it then consisted of sheds, built up with canes, rushes, and papyri. From the middle of this, perhaps, comes the present name, Hyp-_sour_-anois.

The palaces of Tyre were for a long period supplanted by miserable hovels. Poor fishermen inhabited their vaulted cellars; where, in ancient times, the treasures of the world were stored. “This city,” says Maundrell, “standing in the sea upon a peninsula, promises, at a distance, something very magnificent. But when you come to it, you find no similitude of that glory, for which it was so renowned in ancient times. On the north side it has an old Turkish ungarrisoned castle; besides which, you see nothing here but a mere Babel, of broken walls, pillars, vaults, &c.: there not being so much as one entire house left. The present inhabitants are only a few poor wretches, harbouring themselves in the vaults, and chiefly subsisting upon fishing; who seem to be preserved, in this place by Divine Providence, as a visible argument, how God has fulfilled his word concerning Tyre.”

Sour, till lately, was a village in the pachalic of Saide or of Acre; situate on a peninsula, which projects from the shore, in the form of a mallet with an oval head. The isthmus which joins it to the continent is of pure sand. That part of the island which lies between the village and the sea, that is, the western side, was laid out in gardens, beset with weeds. The south side is sandy, and covered with rubbish. The whole village did not contain more than fifty families, having huts for houses, crumbling to pieces.

Dr. Shaw says, that in his time, notwithstanding Tyre was the chief maritime power of Syria, he could not perceive the least token of either Cothon or harbour, that could, at any time, have been of any extraordinary capacity. Coasting ships, indeed, says he, still find a tolerably good shelter from the northerly winds, under the southern shore; but they are obliged immediately to retire, when the winds change to the west or south; so there must, therefore, have been a better station than this for security and reception. In the N. N. E. part likewise of the city, are seen traces of a safe and commodious basin; but, at the same time, so small as not to exceed forty yards in diameter. Neither could it have enjoyed a larger area. Yet this port, small as it is at present, is notwithstanding so choked up with sand and rubbish, that even the boats of the poor fishermen, who visit this once renowned emporium, can be admitted only with great difficulty. The sea, however, which usually destroys solid structures, has not only spared, but enlarged and converted into a solid isthmus, the mound by which Alexander joined the isle of Tyre to the continent.