THE TRADE OF THE PHENICIANS.
We found above at what an early period the migratory tribes of Arabia
came into intercourse with the region of the Euphrates, and the valley
of the Nile, how in both these places they purchased corn, implements,
and weapons in return for their horses and camels, their skins and their
wool, and the prisoners taken in their feuds. It was this exchange trade
of the Arabian tribes which in the first instance brought about the
intercourse of Syria with Babylonia and Egypt. Egypt like Babylonia
required oil and wine for their population; metals, skins, and wool for
their manufactures; wood for the building of houses and ships. For the
Syrians and cities of the Phenicians the intercourse with the Arabians,
and the lands of the Euphrates and Tigris, was facilitated by the fact
that nations related to them in race and language dwelt as far as the
border-mountains of Armenia and Iran and the southern coast of Arabia,
and their trade with Egypt was facilitated in the same manner when
Semitic tribes between 2000 and 1500 B.C. obtained the supremacy in
Egypt and maintained it for more than three centuries. From the fact
that Babylonian weights and measures were in use in Syria in the
sixteenth century B.C., we may conclude that there must have been close
trade relations between Syria and Babylonia from the year 2000 B.C.; and
in the same manner in consequence of the conquest of Egypt by the
shepherds more active relations must have commenced between Syria and
the land of the Nile, at a period not much later. The supremacy which
Egypt afterwards obtained over Syria under the Tuthmosis and Amenophis
must have rather advanced than destroyed this; thus Sethos, towards the
year 1400, used his successes against the Cheta, _i.e._ the Hittites, to
have cedars felled on Lebanon. We may assume that even before this time,
after the rise of the kingdom of the Hittites, _i.e._ after the middle
of the fifteenth century, the cities of the Phenicians were no longer
content to exchange the products of Syria, wine, oil, and brass, the
manufactures of their own growing industry, purple stuffs and weapons,
with the manufactures of Egypt, linen cloths, and papyrus tissues, glass
and engraved stones, ornaments and drugs, on the one hand, and on the
other hand with the manufactures of Babylon, cloths, ointments, and
embroidered stuffs: they also carried Egyptian fabrics to Babylon, and
Babylonian fabrics to Egypt. The trade of Phoenicia with Egypt and
Babylonia was no longer restricted to the exchange of Phenician-Syrian
products and fabrics with those of Egypt and Babylon: it was at the same
time a middle trade between those two most ancient seats of cultivation,
between Egypt and Babylonia. It cannot have been any detriment to this
trade of the Phenicians that a second centre of civic life sprang up
subsequently on the central Tigris in the growing power of Assyria. In
the ruins of Chalah (p. 34) Egyptian works of art have been dug up in no
inconsiderable numbers. Herodotus begins his work with the observation
that the Phenicians at an early period endeavoured to export and
exchange Egyptian and Assyrian (_i.e._ Babylonian and Assyrian) wares.
The sea lay open to the cities of the Phenicians for their intercourse
with Egypt; for this route they were independent of the good will or
aversion of the tribes and princes, who ruled in the south of Canaan;
moreover the wood of Lebanon could not be carried by land to Egypt. We
may certainly assume that the navigation of the Phenicians was enabled
to obtain its earliest practice for further journeys by these voyages to
that mouth of the Nile, which the Egyptians opened to foreign ships (I.
227). The free and secure use of the routes of the caravans to the
Euphrates, and from this river to the Syrian coast, must have been
obtained from the rulers of Syria, the princes of Hamath and Damascus,
the migratory tribes of the Syrian desert, the princes whose dominions
lay on the Euphrates; and would hardly be obtained without heavy
payments. So much the more desirable was it, if the cities could enter
into special relations with one or other of these princes, such as David
and Solomon, who not only opened Israel to them, but also provided the
routes with caravanserais and warehouses (p. 187). The trade-road to the
Euphrates led from Sidon past Dan (Laish) in Israel to Damascus, hence
northwards past Riblah and Emesa (Hems) to Hamath, from Hamath to
Bambyke (Hierapolis) in the neighbourhood of the Euphrates, and then
crossed over the river to Harran (I. 320). From Harran the caravans went
down along the Belik to the Euphrates, then in the valley of the
Euphrates to Babylon, or went eastwards past Nisibis (Nisib) to the
Tigris. A shorter road to the Euphrates ran past Damascus and the oasis
of Tadmor, and reached the river at Thipsach (Thapsacus) at the farthest
bend to the west.[538]
We have already seen at what an early period the trade with the land of
frankincense, _i.e._ with South Arabia, grew up for Egypt, owing to the
mutual intercourse of the Arabian tribes (I. 226). The first attempt of
Egypt to open a communication by sea with South Arabia falls about the
year 2300 B.C. At a period not later, other Arabian tribes must have
carried the incense and spices of South Arabia to Elam, Ur and Nipur,
and Babylon. Syria must have received the products of South Arabia first
through Babylon, then by means of direct communication with the Arabs,
and lastly by the special caravans of the Phenicians. We hear of two
trade-roads to that land. One led past Damascus to the oasis of Duma
(Dumat el Dshandal), and from thence through the interior of Arabia to
the south; the other ran through Israel past Ashtaroth Karnaim, through
the territories of the Ammonites, Moabites, and Edomites, to Elath, and
thence led along the coast of the Arabian Gulf to the Sabaeans (I. 320).
From the Sabaeans and the Chatramites even before the year 1500 B.C. the
caravans brought not spices only and incense, but also the products of
the Somali coast. The Sabaeans traversed the Arabian Gulf and carried
home the products of the coast of East Africa; the southwest coast of
Arabia was no longer a place for producing and exporting frankincense
and spices; it became the trading-place of the Somali coast, and before
the year 1000 B.C. was also the trading-place for the products of India,
which ships of the Indians carried to the shore of the Sabaeans and
Chatramites (I. 322). It must have been a considerable increase in the
extent of the Phenician trade and the gains obtained from it, when the
Phenicians were able to make such a fruitful use of their connection
with South Arabia that it fell into their hands to provide Egypt, with
her products, and perhaps even Babylonia also. Their caravan trade with
South Arabia must have been lively, and the impulse to extend it strong,
as they induced king Solomon to allow them to attempt a connection by
sea from Elath with South Arabia. By the foundation and success of the
trade to Ophir, and the most remote places of the East which they
reached, their commerce obtained its widest extent, and brought in the
richest returns. With incense and balsam, there came to Tyre cinnamon
and cassia, sandal-wood and ivory, gold and pearls from India, and the
silk tissues of the distant East.[539]
The commerce of the Phenician cities comprised Egypt, Babylonia, and
Assyria, it touched Mesopotamia and Armenia, the lands of the Moschi and
Tibarenes, the silver and copper mines of the Chalybes on the Black
Sea.[540] When on the opening of the communication by the Red Sea with
South Arabia and the countries beyond, it gained the widest extent to
the south and east, it had for a whole century past traversed the entire
length of the Mediterranean to the Straits of Gibraltar. We saw above
how the Phenicians steered to Cyprus, Rhodes, Crete, to the AEgean Sea,
to the coasts of Hellas, in order to barter or dig up minerals, to
collect purple-fish for their coloured stuffs, and how after the middle
of the thirteenth century they began to plant settlements on these
coasts. The request for minerals must have been so strongly felt in
their own cities, in Egypt and the lands of the Euphrates, in the course
of the twelfth century, that the ships of the Phenicians went farther
and farther to the west in search of them, that Sicily, Sardinia, and
Corsica were reached and then colonised by them. At the same time Ityke
and Old Hippo were built on the coast of Africa. These supplied
saltpetre, alum, and salt, skins of lions and panthers, horns of
buffalos, ostrich eggs and feathers, slaves and ivory to the
mother-cities. After this, about the year 1100 B.C., Gades was built on
the shore of the Atlantic Ocean. The trade of the Phenicians now brought
not only the products of Syria and the manufactures of their cities to
Egypt and Babylonia; it was not merely a middle trade between those two
lands, nor merely an independent trade and middle trade between South
Arabia and the civilised countries; it mediated now between the East and
the West, the products and manufactures of the near and distant East,
and the natural products of the near and distant West, between the
ancient civilisation of the East and the young life of the nations of
the West. It was above all the metals of the West, the gold of the
Thracian, the copper of the Italian islands, the silver of Tartessus,
which the ships of the Phenicians carried into the harbours of the
mother-cities: the nations of the West received in return weapons, and
metal vases, ornaments, variegated cloths, and purple garments. The
works of Babylonian and Egyptian style, the works which are found in the
tombs of Caere, Clusium, Alsium, at Corneto and Praeneste, adorned in
types at once Egyptian and Babylonian-Assyrian, like the implements and
ornaments found in the tombs of Spata and Mycenae, can only have come
into the possession of the Etruscans, Latins, and Lucanians from
intercourse with the Phenicians, the Phenician colonies of Sicily, or
from the trade with Carthage.[541]
From Gades the Phenicians succeeded in forcing their way farther to the
Atlantic Ocean. Phenician colonies were founded on the west coast of
Africa. Lixus, the oldest and most important of these (Lachash, now El
Araish), at the mouth of the river of the same name (now Wadi el Ghos),
is said to have been the seat of a famous sanctuary of Melkarth.[542]
Strabo is of opinion that these colonies of the Phenicians beyond the
pillars of Hercules were built soon after the Trojan war, _i.e._ about
the year 1100 B.C.[543] Diodorus told us already how Phenician ships,
steering to the coast of Libya in order to explore the sea beyond the
pillars were carried away by a storm far into the ocean, and discovered
a large island opposite Libya, which, from the pleasantness of the air
and the abundance of blessings, seemed fitted to be the dwelling of the
gods rather than men (p. 82). We can hardly doubt, therefore, that the
Phenicians visited Madeira and the Canary Islands.
Tin was early known to the ancient world, and was indispensable for the
alloy of copper, but it could only be found mixed with copper in the
mines of the Chalybes and Tibarenes (the Tabal of the Assyrians, the
Tubal of the Hebrews), whose name is found in Genesis in Tubal-cain, the
first smith, the father of them that work in brass and iron (I. 539).
Besides these, there were tin mines only in the lofty Hindukush, in the
north-west of Iberia, and in the south-west of England.[544] Herodotus
observes: Tin and amber come from the extreme western ends of Europe. He
could not learn from any eye-witness whether there was a sea there,
though he had taken much trouble in the matter. Pliny tells us:
Midacritus first brought tin from the island Kassiteris, _i.e._ the
tin-island.[545] It was the Phenicians who obtained tin, and they did
not obtain it from Iberia only: their ships sailed through the Bay of
Biscay, they became acquainted with the shore of Brittany, which appears
to have been known to them as Oestrymnis; they discovered the tin
islands, _i.e._ the Channel Islands, the coast of Cornwall, and even the
island of Albion.[546] The tin-islands or Kassiterides of the Greeks are
the islands of the north-west ocean, known to the Phenicians, who
procured tin from them.
The Homeric poems often mention amber, which, worked into ornaments,
Phenician ships brought to the Greeks. Ornaments of amber are met with
in the oldest tombs of Cumae, in the tombs at the Lion's Gate at
Mycenae.[547] Hence the Phenicians must have been in possession of amber
as early as the eleventh century B.C. Amber was found not only on the
shores of the Baltic, but also on the coast of the North Sea, between
the mouth of the Rhine and the Elbe. We may therefore draw the
conclusion that in the eleventh and tenth centuries B.C. they must have
advanced far enough in the Channel towards the mouth of the Rhine, or
beyond it, to obtain amber by exchange or collect it themselves, unless
we assume an extensive intercourse between the Celts and Germans.[548]
The starting-point, harbour, and emporium for the trade in the West and
the voyages beyond the pillars of Melkarth in the Atlantic Ocean was
Gades. Long after the naval power of the Phenicians and Carthage had
perished, Gades remained a great, rich, and flourishing city of trade.
Strabo describes it thus: "Situated on a small island not much more than
a hundred stades in length, and scarce a stade in breadth, without any
possessions on the mainland or the islands, this city sends out the most
and largest ships, and seems to yield to no other city, except Rome, in
the number of the inhabitants. But the greater part do not live in the
city, but on ships."[549]
In the tenth century B.C. the navigation and trade of the Phenicians
extended from the coasts of the Arabian Sea, from the Somali coast, and
perhaps from the mouths of the Indus as far as the coast of Britain;
from the coasts of Mauritania on the Atlantic to the Tigris, from
Armenia to the Sabaeans. Stretching out far in every direction, they had
as yet suffered reverses in one region only, in the basin of the AEgean
Sea. Their trade and intercourse was not indeed destroyed, but their
mines, their colonies on the islands of this sea and the coasts of
Hellas, were lost. Before Hiram ascended the throne of Tyre, the
Phenicians, after teaching Babylonian weights and measures, the building
of fortresses and walls, and mining to the Greeks, and bringing them
their alphabet (p. 57), were compelled to retire before the increasing
strength of the Greek cantons, not only from the coasts of Hellas, but
also from the islands of the AEgean. The trade, however, with the
Hellenes continued as before, in lively vigour, so far as the Homeric
descriptions can be accepted as evidence. The most valuable possessions
in the treasuries of the Greek princes are Sidonian works of art.
Phenician ships often show themselves in Greek waters. When one of these
merchantmen is anchored, the wares are set out in the ship, or under
tents on the shore, or the Phenicians offer them for sale in the nearest
place. A Phenician vessel laden with all kinds of ornaments lands on an
island; after the Phenicians have sold many wares they offer to the
queen a necklace of gold and amber, and at the same time they carry off
her son, and sell him on another island. A Phenician freights a ship to
Libya, and persuades a Greek to go with him as overseer of the lading:
he intended to sell him there as a slave. Along with these notices in
the Homeric poems on the trade of the Phenicians, an account has also
come down to us from an Eastern source. The prophet Joel, who prophesied
about the year 830 B.C., says, in regard to the invasion of the
Philistines in Judah, which took place about the year 845 B.C., and
brought them to the walls of Jerusalem (p. 252); Tyre and Sidon, and all
the regions of the land of the Philistines, have stolen the silver and
gold of Jehovah, and carried the costly things into their temples; the
sons of Judah and Jerusalem they sold to the sons of Javan (the Greeks),
in order to remove them far from their land.[550]
For the colonies which the Phenicians had to give up on the Greek coasts
and islands, they found a rich compensation in the strengthening and
increase of their colonies on the west of the Mediterranean, on
Sardinia, where they built Caralis (Cagliari) on the southern shore, on
Corsica, on the north coast of Africa, where Carthage arose about the
middle of the ninth century (p. 269), and on the shores of Iberia. But
another loss which befell them in the East could not be made good so
easily. After king Jehoshaphat's death (848 B.C.), even before the
invasion of the Philistines, the kingdom of Judah, as we saw (p. 252),
lost the sovereignty over the Edomites. Hence the harbour-city of Elath
was lost to the Phenicians also, and the Ophir trade at an end, a
century and a half after it began. Though 50 years later, when Judah
under Amaziah and Uzziah had reconquered the Edomites, and Elath was
rebuilt, this navigation, as it seems, was again set in motion, this
restoration was of no long continuance. After the middle of the eighth
century the Phenicians were finally limited for their trade with the
Sabaeans to the caravan routes through Arabia.
A still more serious source of danger was the approach of the Assyrian
power to the Syrian coast. In the course of the ninth century (from 876
B.C.), as has been remarked above, Assyrian armies repeatedly showed
themselves in Syria, and their departure had repeatedly to be purchased
by tribute. As this pressure increased, and the Assyrian rulers insisted
on pushing forward the borders of their kingdom towards Syria as far as
the shores of the Mediterranean, as the cities of the Phenicians became
subject to a power the centre of which lay in the distant interior, the
trade not to the East but to the West came into question, and it was
doubtful whether the cities, when embodied in a great land-power, could
retain Cyprus in subjection, and keep up the trade with Egypt, and the
connection with their colonies in the West. The doubt became greater
when, after the beginning of the eighth century B.C., a dangerous
opposition rose in the Mediterranean, and a still more serious
competition against the Phenicians. Not content with driving the
Phenicians out of the AEgean Sea, with obtaining possession of the
islands and the west coast of Asia Minor, the Hellenes spread farther
and farther to the west. Already they had got Rhodes into their hands;
they were already settled off the coast of Syria, on the island of
Cyprus, among the ancient cities of the Phenicians. Still more vigorous
was the growth of their settlements to the west of the Mediterranean.
After founding Cyme (Cumae) on the coast of Lower Italy, they built in
Sicily, after the middle of the eighth century, in quick succession,
Naxus (738 B.C.), Syracuse (735 B.C.), Catana (730 B.C.), and Megara
(728 B.C.), to which were quickly added Rhegium, Sybaris, Croton, and
Tarentum in Lower Italy (720-708 B.C.). Were the cities of the
Phenicians in Sicily, Rus Melkarth, Motye, Panormus, Soloeis, and Eryx
(p. 79), in a position to hold the balance against these rivals and
their navigation? The injurious effects of the competition of a rival
power by sea for the trade of the Phenicians must have increased when,
in the seventh century, the cities of the Greeks in Sicily increased in
number, and Egypt was opened to them about the middle of this century;
when, in the year 630 B.C., the first Greek city, Cyrene, rose on the
shore of Africa, and about the same time the Greeks entered into direct
trade connections with Tartessus; when at the close of this century a
Greek city was built on the shore of the Ligystian Sea, at the mouth of
the Rhone, and soon after the settlements of the Greeks in Sicily and in
the west of the Mediterranean began to multiply. While in this manner
the field of Phenician trade was limited by the constant advance of the
Greeks, the mother-cities, from the same period, the middle of the
eighth century, had to feel the whole weight of the development of
Assyrian power. And when this pressure ceased, in the second half of the
seventh century, it was followed by the still more burdensome oppression
of the Babylonian empire.
Yet in spite of all hindrances and losses, a prophet of the Hebrews
after the middle of the eighth century could say of Tyre, that "she
built herself strongholds, and heaped up silver as the dust, and fine
gold as the mire of the streets."[551] And Ezekiel at the beginning of
the sixth century describes the trade of Tyre in the following manner:
"Thou who dwellest at the entrance of the sea, who art the trader of the
nations to many islands! On mighty waters thy rowers carry thee; thy
trade goes out over all seas; thou satisfiest many nations; thou hast
enriched the kings of the earth by the multitude of thy goods and wares.
Thou art become mighty in the midst of the sea. All ships of the sea and
their sailors were in thee to purchase thy wares. Persians and Libyans
and Lydians serve in thee; they are thy warriors; they hang shield and
helmet on thy walls: thy own warriors stand round on the walls, and
brave men are on all thy towers. Syria is thy merchant, because of the
number of the wares of thy skill; they make thy fairs with emeralds,
purple, and broidered work, and fine linen, and coral, and agate.
Damascus is thy merchant in the multitude of the wares of thy making, in
the wine of Helbon, and white wool. Judah and the land of Israel were
thy merchants; they traded in thy market wheat and pastry and honey.
They of the house of Togarmah (Armenia) traded in thy fairs with horses
and mules. Haran, Canneh, and Asshur, and Childmad were thy merchants in
costly robes, in blue cloths and embroidered work, and chests of
cedar-wood full of damasks bound with cords, in thy place of
merchandise. Dedan (the Dedanites[552]) is thy merchant in horse-cloths
for riding. Wedan brings tissues to thy markets: forged iron, cassia,
and calamus were brought to thy markets. Arabia and all the princes of
Kedar are ready for thee with lambs, rams, and goats. The merchants of
Sabaea and Ramah[553] traffic with thee; they occupied in thy fairs with
the chief of all spices, and with all precious stones and gold. Javan
(the Greeks), Tubal, and Mesech (the Tibarenes and Moschi) are thy
merchants; they trade with silver, iron, tin, and lead. Many islands are
at hand to thee for trade; they brought thee for payment horns of ivory
and ebony. The ships of Tarshish are thy caravans in thy trade: so art
thou replenished and mighty in the midst of the sea."[554]
FOOTNOTES:
[538] _Supra_, p. 187. Movers, "Phoeniz." 2, 3, 244 ff.
[539] Movers, _loc. cit._ 2, 3, 265 ff.
[540] Vol. i. p. 538. Ezekiel xxvii. 14; xxxviii. 6.
[541] Helbig, "Annali del Inst. Arch." 1876, pp. 57, 117, 247 ff.
[542] Pliny, "Hist. Nat." s. 1; 19, 22. Cf. Movers, _loc. cit._ 2, 2,
537 ff.
[543] Strabo, p. 48; cf. p. 150.
[544] The German tin-mines were not opened till the middle ages; those
of farther India in the last century; Muellenhoff, "Deutsche
Altertumskunde," s. 24.
[545] Herod. 3, 115; Pliny, "Hist. Nat." 7, 57.
[546] At a later time we meet with the name Prettanian islands. Ynis
Prydein, _i.e._ island of Prydein, was the name given by the Welsh to
their land; Muellenhoff, _loc. cit._ s. 88 ff, 93 ff.
[547] Helbig, "Commercio dell ambra," p. 10, _n._ 4. On the amber in the
tombs east of the Apennines, pp. 15, 16.
[548] Muellenhoff, _loc. cit._ s. 223.
[549] Strabo, p. 168.
[550] Joel iii. 4 ff. On the date of Joel, _supra_, p. 260, _n._ 2. De
Wette-Schrader, "Einleitung," s. 454. According to the data established
above, the minority of Joash falls between 837 and 825 B.C.
[551] The older Zechariah ix. 3, and De Wette-Schrader, "Einleitung," s.
480.
[552] Vol. i. p. 314.
[553] Vol. i. p. 314.
[554] Ezekiel xxvii.