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.
A recent traveller, however, says, “that in the angle on which was
seated the royal palace, there are still to be seen a number of fallen
granite pillars, and other vestiges of architectural grandeur; but of
the temples of the Tyrian and the Thracian Hercules, of Saturn, of
Apollo, and of their other deities, I am not aware that sufficient
remains are to be traced to confirm the positions assigned to them. The
causeway of Alexander is still perfect, and is become like a natural
isthmus, by its being covered over with sand. The hill, on which is
placed the temple of the Astrochitonian Hercules, is now occupied by a
Mohammedan faqueer’s tomb, around which are no ruins that indicate a
work of grandeur destroyed. The ruins of Palæ-tyrus, near to Ras-el-ain,
were not observed by me, although we crossed the brook there; and the
Syrian sepulchres, which are said to be to the northward of the town, I
did not hear of. On approaching the modern Sour, whether from the hills,
from the north or from the south, its appearance has nothing of
magnificence. On entering the town, it is discovered to have been
walled; the portion towards the isthmus still remaining, and being
entered by an humble gate; while that on the north side is broken down,
showing only detached fragments of circular towers, greatly
dilapidated.” “They do not reach beyond the precincts of the present
town; thus shutting out all the range to the northward of the harbour,
which appears to have been composed of the ruins of former buildings.”
“The tower to the south-east is not more than fifty feet square, and
about the same height. It is turreted to the top, and has small windows
and loop-holes on each of its sides. A flight of steps leads up to it
from without, and its whole appearance is like that of the Saracenic
buildings in the neighbourhood of Cairo.”
Sour has greatly risen of late years. It now contains eight hundred
dwellings, substantially built of stone; most of which have courts,
walls, and various conveniences, attached to them; besides smaller
habitations for the poor. There are, also, one mosque, three Christian
churches, three bazaars, and a bath. This intelligence is furnished by
Mr. Buckingham, who was there in the earlier part of 1816. He adds also,
that the population amounts, at the lowest computation, from five to six
thousand; three-fourths of which are Arab catholics, and the remainder
Turks and Arab moslems.
In Tyre was interred the well-known Frederic the First, surnamed
Barbarossa (A. D. 1190)[305].
NO. XLI.—VEII
The memory of Veii[306] was almost obliterated in the time of Florus.
The flock had fed in the streets, and the ploughshare had furrowed the
sepulchres of the Veientes[307].
The history of Veii is too imperfect, to throw any light, prior to the
existence of Rome. We are only informed, that Morrius, king of Veii, was
descended, by Halæsius, from Neptune; and that there was a king Veius, a
king Menalus, and lastly, in the time of Camillus, an elected king named
Tolemarius.
Veii was a powerful city of Etruria; large enough to contend with Rome
in the time of Servius Tullus; and Dionysius of Halicarnassus says, that
it was equal in extent to Athens; and Sir W. Gell quotes a passage from
a fragment of the same writer, published by Mai at Milan, 1816, in which
he speaks thus of Veii and its territory:—“The city of Veii was not
inferior to Rome itself in buildings, and possessed a large and fruitful
territory, partly mountainous, and partly in the plain. The air was
pure and healthy, the country being free from the vicinity of marshes,
and without any river, which might render the morning air too rigid.
Nevertheless, there was an abundance of water; not artificially
conducted, but rising from natural springs, and good to drink.” (Lib.
xii. frag. 21).
In the course of three hundred and fifty years it carried on no less
than sixteen wars with Rome, but was at last taken and destroyed by
Camillus, after a siege of ten years. This was the most important of the
conquests of the infant republic. Its situation was so eligible, that
the Romans, after the burning of their city by the Gauls, were long
inclined to emigrate there, and totally abandon their homes; and this
would have been carried into execution, but for the authority and
eloquence of Camillus[308].
“It is lamentable,” says Sir W. Gell, “that in a country so little
cultivated, interesting traces of antiquity, tending to confirm the
truth of history, should be suffered to disappear almost without record,
for the sake of a miserable and narrow stripe of corn, and a few
volcanic stones for mending the roads. The site of the citadel of Veii
affords ample testimony to the accuracy of the description of Dionysius,
who says it stood upon a high and precipitous rock. Not far from the
road (from Rome) several large square blocks, concealed by soil and
bushes, may easily be detected by persons accustomed to antiquarian
researches. A heap of ruins are seen, supposed to have been a temple
dedicated to Juno; and among these lay, in 1830, a piece of marble,
relating to the family of Tarquitia, a race of celebrated Tuscan augurs,
from whose books the soothsayers took their lessons, even so low down as
the last war of the emperor Julian with the Persians.”
There exists, also, a large tumulus, supposed to be the tomb of
Propertius, king of Etruria, founder of the city.
In a rock under the ancient wall are several niches, which have the
appearance of places for urns, or votive offerings; not of Roman
construction, but Etrurian. There are, also, evident traces of one or
two bridges; and on the summit of a hill, at the distance of three
miles, is another tumulus.
In another part the rugged extent of the rocks, with the bushes, and the
difficulty of carrying away the blocks, have preserved portions of the
ancient wall of the Etruscan Veii. These are ten or eleven feet in
length, and some more than five feet in height. One of the most singular
facts attending this wall, is a bed of three courses of bricks, each
three feet in length, intervening between the lower course of the wall,
and the rock upon which it is built. It requires only a very moderate
knowledge of the subject to convince us, that the construction of this
wall has no resemblance to anything remaining at Rome, nor yet at Nepi,
Falerii, or Tarquinii, where the ramparts were in smaller blocks, and
nearly regular. The style of the fortifications at Veii bespeak a much
higher antiquity.
Added to what we have already stated, there are vestiges of ancient
fortifications and aqueducts, and traces of roads; also fragments of an
ancient citadel. There are, also, tombs in a glen near, and upon the
rock, called Isola, exhibiting every kind of sepulchral excavation;
caves, columbaria, and tombs without number. This was, no doubt, the
metropolis of Veii.
There are, also, the remains of other tumuli, which appear to have been
the common receptacle of those slain in battle, rather than of
remarkable individuals. These all mark the date of Veii in the elder
times; but a statue of Tiberius found here, of course denotes the age
of the empire.
“The remains of this once populous Etruscan city,” says Sir William
Gell, “have, in the course of the last ten years, suffered so lamentably
from spoliations, perpetrated or permitted by the owners of the soil,
that it is necessary to take particular notice of such relics as still
attest the existence of a place of so much importance in the early
history of Italy.”
This he has done, in his work entitled “The Topography of Rome, and its
Vicinity;” and from that work we glean most that is stated in this
abstract[309].
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Dodwell.
[2] Barthelemy.
[3] Dodwell.
[4] Barthelemy; Rollin; Dodwell; Clarke.
[5] Knight.
[6] Chandler.
[7] Clarke.
[8] Clarke.
[9] Strabo; Pausanias; Rollin; Wheler; Barthelemy; Chandler; Turner;
Clarke.
[10] Gillies.
[11] Acts xx. ver. 13. And we went before to ship, and sailed unto
Assos, there intending to take in Paul: for so had he appointed, minding
himself to go afoot.
14. And when he met with us at Assos, we took him in, and came to
Mitylene.
15. And we sailed thence, and came the next day over against Chios; and
the next day we arrived at Samos, and tarried at Trogyllium; and the
next day we came to Miletus.
16. For Paul had determined to sail by Ephesus, because he would not
spend the time in Asia: for he hasted, if it were possible for him, to
be at Jerusalem the day of Pentecost.
17. And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called the elders of the
church.
18. And when they were come to him, he said unto them, Ye know, from the
first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you
at all seasons.
[12] He was the first that accurately calculated eclipses of the sun; he
discovered the solstices; he divided the heavens into five zones, and
recommended the division of the year into three hundred and sixty-five
days.
[13] The inventor of sun-dials and the gnomon. This philosopher had
nevertheless many curious opinions; amongst which may be mentioned, that
air was the parent of every created being; and that the sun, moon, and
stars, had been made from the earth.
[14] He taught that men were born of earth and water, mixed together by
the heat of the sun.
[15] An historian.
[16] A musician.
[17] Ionian Antiquities.
[18] Herodotus; Strabo; Pausanias; Quintus Curtius; Prideaux; Chandler;
Stuart; Barthelemy; Gillies.
[19] This was written in 1806, and published in 1819.
[20] Pausanias; Dodwell; La Martine.
[21] Barthelemy; Dodwell; Rees; Brewster.
[22] See Herod. i. c. 184; Diodor. Sic. ii.; Pompon. Mela, i. c. 3;
Justin. i. c. 1; Val. Max. ix. c. 3.
[23] The character of Sardanapalus has been treated more gently by a
modern poet. “The Sardanapalus of Lord Byron is pretty nearly such a
person as the Sardanapalus of history may be supposed to have
been,—young, thoughtless, spoiled by flattery and unbounded
self-indulgence; but, with a temper naturally amiable, and abilities of
a superior order, he affects to undervalue the sanguinary renown of his
ancestors, as an excuse for inattention to the most necessary duties of
his rank; and flatters himself, while he is indulging his own sloth,
that he is making his people happy. Yet, even in his fondness for
pleasure, there lurks a love of contradiction. Of the whole picture,
selfishness is the prevailing feature;—selfishness admirably drawn,
indeed; apologised for by every palliating circumstance of education and
habit, and clothed in the brightest colours of which it is susceptible,
from youth, talents, and placidity. But it is selfishness still; and we
should have been tempted to quarrel with the art which made vice and
frivolity thus amiable, if Lord Byron had not, at the same time, pointed
out with much skill the bitterness and weariness of spirit which
inevitably wait on such a character; and if he had not given a fine
contrast to the picture, in the accompanying portraits of Salamenes and
Myrrha.”—HEBER.
[24] Atherstone’s “Fall of Nineveh.”
[25] Ælian calls him Thilgamus.
[26] 2 Kings.
[27] Adrammelech and Sharezer.
[28] 2 Kings, xix. ver. 37.
[29] Tobit, xiv. ver. 5, 13
[30] Nahum, chap. iii.
[31] Zephaniah, chap. ii.
[32] Soon after the great fire of London, the rector of St. Michael,
Queenhithe, preached a sermon before the Lord Mayor and corporation of
London, in which he instituted a parallel between the cities of London
and Nineveh, to show that unless the inhabitants of the former repented
of their many public and private vices, and reformed their lives and
manners, as did the Ninevites on the preaching of Jonah, they might
justly be expected to become the objects of the signal vengeance of
Heaven: putting them in mind of the many dreadful calamities that have,
from time to time, befallen the English nation in general, and the great
City of London in particular; and of the too great reason there was to
apprehend some yet more signal vengeance from the hands of Omnipotence,
since former judgments had not proved examples sufficient to warn and
amend a very wicked people.
[33] Diodorus says, that Nineveh stood on the Euphrates: but this is
contrary to all evidence.