Sidon is at present a town of considerable importance, known as Saide or Seide. This ancient port is nearly choked up with sand; the houses which rise from it, and contain upwards of 15,000 inhabitants, are built along the shore, and impart, as the traveller

approaches, the idea of a place of some extent. Considerable employment is still given to the spinners of cotton and manufacturers of leather, and at a short distance from the shore is the island of Said, once connected by a mole with the main land, and forming a second well-sheltered harbour. The Roman bay is commanded by a modern battery, and behind this Turkish fortress are traces of the ancient city; and the remains of several tombs. Homer, in the 15th book of his Odyssey, mentions this city; and in describing the arrival of one of its ships, tells us how it was freighted, and that it contained toys and fancies of every sort. The same poet often alludes to the works of art, the mantles of various hue, the dyes, the silver goblets, the beads of amber rivetted on gold, and other articles of luxury that were sent from Sidon; and that the fair Sidonians were highly accomplished in embroidery and other ornamental works.

Sidon was rendered important from the mercantile disposition of its inhabitants, who were also skilled in producing all kinds of manufactures then in demand; the mountains of Libanus in their rear afforded them abundance of timber for ship-building, with which they constructed vessels that carried their surplus produce to the most distant lands. Had Faccardine, the emir of the Druses, who dreaded the constant visits of the Turkish fleet, not demolished the ancient mole, we might have had it in our power to describe a structure of the golden age, or of the time when giants are said to have given their aid: for vast indeed in dimension are many of the stones that lie scattered along the coast, and which once formed the mole that shut in their harbours. Some of these stones are reported to be long enough to have extended through the whole thickness of the mole. At present a ledge of rock affords the only shelter to vessels which frequent this port; this is a short distance from the coast, and stretches itself in front of the citadel towards the north. This ancient port for a long period enjoyed the sovereignty of the entire Mediterranean; and as the surrounding country was barren, the inhabitants could not have subsisted without commerce, which brought in its train the arts. Some of their early bronze and silver medals bear proof how highly they were advanced, and history attests the success which attended their navigation. Homer, according to Strabo, speaks only of Sidon, when he alludes to the inhabitants of Phoenicia.

Tyre, or Sor, called "the daughter of Sidon," stood also on the sea, at a distance of about 200 stadia southward. We must be careful not to confound the three different cities which had this name. The first in order of time was old Tyre, on the continent; then Tyre on the island; and Tyre on the peninsula, after the island was joined to the main land. It had two harbours; one lying north, and the other south, or towards Egypt, which were formed by the isthmus; the latter was a close harbour, and the opening through which ships entered was fortified by drawing a chain across it. An artificial mole still defends this bay; and probably the rocks on the other side were once built upon, thoroughly to enclose it. Northward, at the head of the island, stretches out, from a ruined light-house, another mole, which protected the northern harbour. Since the uniting of the island a gully has been formed, as if the sea had again broken through, and once more separated it from the continent. Tyre on the island, and old Tyre on the main land, for a long time constituted one city: according to Pliny, the island was 700 paces from the continent; but, according to Strabo, 30 stadia, or nearly three of our miles. The same author states that the walls which encompassed it were 150 feet in height, proportionally broad, and built of large and massive blocks of stone, embedded in mortar. Modern travellers place the island at about a third of a mile distant from the

shore. Old Tyre was first destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, after a siege of thirteen years, the inhabitants having removed all their treasures to the island. The conqueror was

therefore obliged to rest satisfied with destroying the town on the main land, after which he set out towards Egypt.

ARTIFICIAL

Fig. 3.

TOWER

ROADSTED

MOLE

TYRE.

DARSENA

MATHEEL ROCK

The Tyrians were then compelled to submit to the rule of the Babylonians; and, for seventy years, were governed by kings of their nomination. The Persians then restored to them their independence, whom they assisted when Xerxes carried on his wars against the Greeks: and Herodotus informs us that the kings of both Tyre and Sidon formed part of the Persian monarch's council of war.

About 332 years before Christ these cities were destroyed by Alexander, who, in his march towards Egypt, compelled all the cities of Phoenicia to submit to him.

Tyre obstinately refused him entrance, when he immediately commenced the memorable siege, which ended by his taking the city by force of arms: the height of the walls, the strength of the navy, and the abundance of all things for defence, made it a difficult and almost hopeless attempt.

He began, says Diodorus, by demolishing old Tyre, and employed his army to carry away the stones, and raise a mole, 200 feet in breadth, which was speedily advanced. Whilst this was doing, the Tyrians determined to send their wives, children, and old men to Carthage, and keep their young men to defend their walls; but this was not carried into execution: the walls were covered with new-invented engines, and especially on that side where the mole was in progress.

When the mole was carried within a short distance, or the cast of a dart, a large whale was thrown upon it, much to the alarm of all parties: the citizens being struck with the increase of the mole, sallied out in small boats, accompanied by slingers and archers armed with engines of all kinds for the discharge of arrows and darts.

A violent storm of wind arose, and destroyed a portion of the work, and broke through the mole. This was speedily repaired, by causing large trees, cut down in the mountains, to be thrown in, with their branches entire; on which was heaped a quantity of earth, to render it strong enough to resist the violence of the sea. When the mole was complete, and within a short distance of the walls, Alexander commenced battering them down, discharging at the same time darts and arrows out of engines at the besieged. The Tyrians, to guard against these missiles, had contrived wheels with long spokes of

their battlements, which, turning constantly round, shivered all the darts that came in contact with them to atoms; and they checked the violence of the stones thrown by the balista, by woolpacks placed in proper situations to receive them.

The Tyrians did not relax in their exertions. They built within their outer wall another, ten cubits broad, and five cubits distant from the former, and filled in the space between with earth and stones. Alexander then constructed a battery, by joining many of his ships together, and then placing the rams against a portion of the wall, beat down 100 feet of it, when he attempted to pass through the breach, but was repulsed by the Tyrians, who during the night again rebuilt the wall which had been battered down. The Macedonians then approached with towers as high as the battlements of the Tyrian walls, and, casting out planks, formed a bridge. Here they were again repulsed by the Tyrians, who had contrived long tridents, or three-forked hooks, to grapple and wound those placed on the top of the towers; these grapples, attached to ropes, they flung over the shields of the assailants, and tore them out of their hands. Nets were thrown over those who attempted to pass over the bridges formed of planks, and they became so entangled, that many of them tumbled headlong to the ground. They also filled their iron and brazen shields with sand, and after they had made it scorching hot by placing them over fires, it was by means of a machine cast upon the besiegers, and getting between their breastplates and coats of mail, burnt their flesh, and many died in consequence. The Tyrians sent off fire darts, heavy stones, and all kinds of missiles, and with long poles, armed with sharp knives and hooks, they cut the cords of the battering rams in pieces: they also discharged out of their machines masses of red-hot iron; they plucked men off the ramparts with iron instruments shaped at the end like a man's hand.

Alexander was undismayed, and unwearied in his exertions: he continued to batter the walls, and discharge ponderous stones out of his engines, and all sorts of missiles from his wooden towers. Marble wheels placed upon the walls, and kept constantly turned, were made to throw them off, and render them ineffectual: hides and skins were also sewn together, which, being soft and pliant, were placed in other situations for the same purpose. At last, Alexander perceiving that the wall next the arsenal was weaker than the rest, he brought all his galleys which contained his best engines chained fast together to that place; here he cast a plank from a wooden tower with one end upon the battlements of the walls, thus forming a bridge, and alone mounted the rampart, to the astonishment of all, neither regarding the danger nor the assaults of the Tyrians: his Macedonians quickly followed: he came first in contact with the enemy, and killing some with his spear, others with his sword, and tumbling others down with the boss of his shield, he overcame his adversaries. During this time the battering rams had made another breach in the wall, and the Macedonians entering, joined the party fighting with Alexander, and by this means at last was the city taken.

The Tyrians, throughout this siege, made a most valiant defence; but instead of their bravery awakening in the breast of the conqueror an admiration for their courage, to his lasting disgrace he ordered two thousand of the chief inhabitants to be crucified, and sold thirty thousand for slaves: eight thousand of its chief soldiers perished in the combat, and the city itself he burnt to the ground.

Nearly twenty years afterwards we again find Tyre able to resist an attack made upon it by the fleets and armies of Antigonus, who, after a fifteen months' siege, captured it.

It subsequently fell under the dominion of the Roman empire; and the Latins were not finally driven from Syria until about a century after the death of Saladin. In the year 1188, Conrad of Montserrat was hailed as the prince and champion of Tyre, which was then besieged by the conqueror of Jerusalem. The Egyptian fleet was allowed to enter the ancient harbour, the chain was immediately drawn across the entrance from mole to mole, and a thousand Turks were slain. Saladin was obliged to burn all his engines, and make a disgraceful retreat to Damascus. Afterwards, Tyre was a place of rendezvous to the ships of Genoa, Pisa, and Venice, and eventually it became a part of the Turkish dominions.

The insular Tyre, destroyed by Alexander, is now "a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea," as Ezekiel prophesied; the mole which the conqueror raised was washed away by a storm, and thus the peninsular state of Tyre was destroyed.

Aradus was also a city belonging to the Phoenicians; and another, called Tripoli, was built by the inhabitants of Aradus and Tyre, and hence its name.

The settlers at a very early period excelled in the sciences, and brought the arts and manufactures to great perfection. They were the inventors of astronomy, and from them the Greeks received their letters. The glass, the purple dye, and fine linen, produced bere, was celebrated all over the then known world; they were skilled in the working of metals and carving of timber; and were so perfect in the arts of construction, that we hear of them, in the time of Hiram, being employed by king Solomon in the construction of his temple, more than 1000 years before our era.

As merchants, they had the commerce of the world; as navigators, they were the most experienced; and the greatest discoverers as well as planters of colonies; and for many ages they had no competitors.

They carried on considerable trade with Syria; and, having convenient harbours, and excellent timber furnished them, they built great numbers of ships.

Carthage, according to Velleius, was founded 65 years before Rome; while many writers imagine that it was built 130 years before the imperial city, by Dido, the sister of Pygmalion, king of Tyre, and wife of Sichæus; and the Tyrians she carried with her, to colonise this new settlement, were among the most skilful in the arts of the then known world: the form of government she introduced was by Aristotle said to be the most perfect in existence.

Carthage was situated at the extremity of a gulf, upon a peninsula 360 stadia or 45 miles in circumference; and the isthmus which united this peninsula to the continent of Africa, was 25 stadia or more than 3 miles in breadth. On the west projected a long slip of land, half a stadium in breadth, which separated the sea from a lake, which was strongly protected by rocks on both sides.

In the middle of the city was the Acropolis, called Byrsa, where was a temple to Esculapius. On the south side of the city was a triple wall, 30 cubits in height, and at every 480

B S

feet was placed a tower, which had its foundations laid at a depth of 30 feet, and was four stories in height, being carried up two stories higher than the walls.

There were two harbours, so disposed that they communicated with each other, although they had but one common entrance, which was 70 feet in breadth, secured by chains. One was devoted to merchant ships, and the inner port, as well as the island called Cothon, in the midst of it, which was surrounded by spacious quays, was made secure for the reception of 220 ships of war. Magazines, storehouses, and all the requisites of an extensive arsenal, were constructed around it; and the entrances to the harbours were decorated with marble porticoes, so that the whole might be said to be encompassed by two magnificent galleries. Upon the island was the residence of the governor, facing the mouth of the harbour, so that he could see all that was passing both within and without the port. When the merchant ships entered, it was not possible for them to view what the inner port contained, as it was shut in by a double wall, and each port had its particular gate.

The city had three divisions: Byrsa, Megara, and Cothon. Byrsa was three miles in circumference, and stood nearly in the centre of Carthage, surrounded by Megara, which contained the houses of the citizens: these, at the time of the third Punic war, were numbered at seven hundred thousand. Livy gives twenty-three miles for the measure of its circumference, and Suidas affirms it was the most powerful city in the world: it enjoyed. the dominion of the sea for more than six hundred years, and had an extensive and lucrative commerce. The Carthaginians possessed three hundred cities in Africa, and their territory extended from the western confines of Cyrenaica to the Pillars of Hercules, a distance of upwards of fifteen hundred miles. Spain, Sicily, and all the islands of the Mediterranean also belonged to them. The Carthaginians, who disputed the empire of the world with the Romans for a hundred and eighteen years, were destroyed as a nation a hundred and forty-six years before Christ. Emilianus, the Roman general, made two attacks, one against Byrsa, and the other against Cothon; and having become master of the wall which surrounded the port, threw a considerable force into the great square of the city; soon after which, Asdrubal abandoned the Carthaginian troops, and went over to the Romans: his wife could not survive such perfidy, and committed herself, children, and followers to the flames which then enveloped the citadel and temple. Soon after, the victorious Romans demolished Carthage, as well as the cities dependent upon it, and the territory was declared a Roman province.

The enormous wealth that had been amassed by this commercial people is stated by Pliny at upwards of four millions four hundred and seventy thousand pounds weight of silver, which was carried away by Emilianus.

Carthage is now at a considerable distance from the sea; the north-east wind and the Merjedah have closed up its ancient harbour. The place is called El Mersa; the port lies to the north and north-west of the city, and forms, with the lake of Tunis, the peninsula on which Carthage was built.