In The Days Of Abraham They Were
Considered As A Very Powerful People:
And express mention is made of their
maritime trade in the last words of Jacob to his children.
Moses informs us
that Tarshish (wherever it was situated) was visited by the Phoenicians.
When this people were deprived of a great portion of their territory by the
Israelites under Joshua, they still retained the city of Sidon; and from it
their maritime expeditions proceeded. The order of time in which they took
place, as well as their object and result, are very imperfectly known; it
seems certain, however, that they either regularly traded with, or formed
colonies or establishments for the purpose of trade at first in Cyprus and
Rhodes, and subsequently in Greece, Sicily, Sardinia, Gaul, and the
southern part of Spain. About 1250 years before Christ, the Phoenician
ships ventured beyond the Straits, entered the Atlantic, and founded Cadiz.
It is probable, also, that nearly about the same period they formed
establishments on the western coast of Africa. We have the express
authority of Homer, that at the Trojan war the Phoenicians furnished other
nations with many articles that could contribute to luxury and
magnificence; and Scripture informs us, that the ships of Hyram, king of
Tyre, brought gold to Solomon from Ophir. That they traded to Britain for
tin at so early a period as that which we are now considering, will appear
very doubtful, if the metal mentioned by Moses, (Numbers, chap. xxxi. verse
22.) was really tin, and if Homer is accurate in his statement that this
metal was used at the siege of Troy; for, certainly, at neither of these
periods had the Phoenicians ventured so far from their own country.
Hitherto we have spoken of Sidon as the great mart of Phoenician commerce;
at what period Tyre was built and superseded Sidon is not known. In the
time of Homer, Tyre is not even mentioned: but very soon afterwards it is
represented by Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the other prophets, as a city
of unrivalled trade and wealth. Ezekiel, who prophesied about the year 595
B.C. has given a most picturesque description of the wealth of Tyre, all of
which must have proceeded from her commerce, and consequently points out
and proves its great extent and importance. The fir-trees of Senir, the
cedars of Lebanon, the oaks of Bashan, the ivory of the Indies, the fine
linen of Egypt, and the hyacinth and purple of the isles of Elishah, are
enumerated among the articles used for their ships. Silver, tin, lead, and
vessels of brass; slaves, horses, and mules; carpets, ivory, and ebony;
pearls and silk; wheat, balm, honey, oil and gums; wine, and wool, and
iron, are enumerated as brought into the port of Tyre by sea, or to its
fairs by land, from Syria, Damascus, Greece, Arabia, and other places, the
exact site of which is not known.[1] Within the short period of fifteen or
twenty years after this description was written, Tyre was besieged by
Nebuchadnezzar; and after an obstinate and very protracted resistance, it
was taken and destroyed.
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