Such an extension of power, and the acquisition of sources of wealth
so boundless, excited the envy of other nations.
The Greeks are said to have been in the Iberian peninsula long before
the fall of Troy, where they came with a fleet from Zante, in the
Ionian Sea, and in memory of that place, called the city they founded
Zacynthus, which name in time became _Saguntum_. Now they sent more
expeditions and founded more cities on the Spanish coast; and the
Babylonians, and the Assyrians, and, at a later time, the Persians and
the Greeks, all took up arms against these insatiate traders.
Phenician supremacy was not easily maintained with so many jealous
rivals in the field, and it was rudely shaken in 850 B.C., when
"The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold,
And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold."
and the Phenician power was partially broken at its source in the
East.
It is with thrilling interest that we read Isaiah's prophecy of the
destruction of Tyre, which was written at this very time. For the
Phenicians were the _Canaanites_ of Bible history, and "Hiram King of
Tyre" was their king; and his "navy," which, together with Solomon's
"came once in three years from _Tarshish_," was their navy; and
_Tarshish_ was none other than _Tartessus_, their own province, just
beyond Gibraltar on the Spanish coast. Nor is it at all improbable
that Spanish gold was used to adorn the temple which the great Solomon
was building. (I Kings ix., x.) Shakspere, who says all things
better than anyone else, makes Othello find in the fatal handkerchief
"confirmation strong as proofs from holy writ." Where can be found
"confirmation" stronger than these "proofs from holy writ"? And where
a more magnificent picture of the luxury, the sumptuous Oriental
splendor of this nation at that period, than in Ezekiel, chapters
xxvii., xxviii.? What an eloquent apostrophe to Tyre--"thou that art
situate at the entry of the sea, a merchant of the people, for _many
isles_."--"With thy wisdom and with thine understanding thou hast
gotten thee riches," and, "by thy great wisdom and by thy _traffick_
hast thou increased, and thine heart is lifted up." And then follows
the terrible arraignment--"because of the iniquity of thy _traffick_."
And then the final prediction of ruin--"I will bring thee to ashes
upon the earth"; "thou shalt be a terror, and _never_ shalt thou be
any more." Where in any literature can we find such lurid splendor
of description, and such a powerful appeal to the imagination of the
reader! And where could the student of history find a more graphic and
accurate picture of a vanished civilization!
In 850 B.C., the same year in which the Assyrians partly subjugated
the Phenicians in the East, the city of Carthage was founded upon the
north coast of Africa, and there commenced a movement, with that city
as its center, which drew together all their scattered possessions
into a Punic confederacy. This was composed of the islands of
Sardinia, Corsica, part of Sicily, the Balearic Isles, and the cities
and colonies upon the Spanish Peninsula and African coast. As the
power of this confederacy expands, the name Phenician passes away and
that of _Carthaginian_ takes its place in history.
Carthage became a mighty city, and controlled with a strong hand
the scattered empire which had been planted by the Syrian tradesmen.
Carthaginian merchants and miners were in Tartessus, and were planting
cities and colonies throughout the peninsula, and a torrent of
Carthaginian life was thus pouring into Spain for many hundred years,
and the blood of the two races must have freely mingled.
There are memorials of this time now existing, not only in Phenician
coins, medals, and ruins, but in the names of the cities. _Barcelona_,
named after the powerful family of Barca in Carthage, to which
Hannibal belonged. _Carthagena_, a memorial of Carthage, which
meant "the city"; and even _Cordova_ is traced to its primitive
form,--Kartah-duba,--meaning "an important city." While _Isabella_,
the name most famous in Spanish annals, has a still greater antiquity;
and was none other than Jezebel--after the beautiful daughter of the
King of Sidon (the "_Zidoneans_"), who married Ahab, and lured him to
his downfall. And we are told that this wicked siren whose dreadful
fate Elijah foretold, was cousin to Dido, she who Virgil tells us
"wept in silence" for the faithless AEneas. With what a strange thrill
do we find these threads of association between history sacred and
profane, and both mingled with the modern history of Spain.
But Phenicia, for the "iniquity of her traffick," was doomed. The
roots of this old Asiatic tree had been slowly and surely perishing,
while her branches in the West were expanding. In the year 332 B.C.
the siege and destruction of Tyre, predicted five hundred years before
by Isaiah, was accomplished by Alexander the Great, and the words
of the prophet found their complete fulfillment--that the people of
Tarshish should find no city, no port, no welcome, when they came back
to Syria!
But on the northern coast of the Mediterranean there was another power
which was waxing, while the Carthaginian was waning. The occupation of
the young Roman Republic was not trade, but conquest. A bitter enmity
existed between the two nations. Rome was determined to break this
grasping old Asiatic confederacy and to drive it out of Europe. The
Spanish Peninsula she knew little about, but the rich islands near her
own coast--they must be hers.
When, after the first Punic war (264-241 B.C.), the Carthaginians saw
Sardinia and Sicily torn from them, Hamilcar, their great general,
determined upon a plan of vengeance which should make of Italy a Punic
province. His people were strong upon the sea, but for this war of
invasion they must have an army, too. So he conceived the idea of
making Spain the basis of his military operations, and recruiting an
immense army from the Iberian Peninsula.