Importance of the cities in Phoenicia--Their names and
relative eminence--Cities of the first rank--Sidon--Tyre--
Arvad or Aradus--Marathus--Gebal or Byblus--Tripolis--Cities
of the second rank--Aphaca--Berytus--Arka--Ecdippa--Accho--
Dor--Japho or Joppa--Ramantha or Laodicea--Fivefold division
of Phoenicia.
Phoenicia, like Greece, was a country where the cities held a position
of extreme importance. The nation was not a centralised one, with a
single recognised capital, like Judæa, or Samaria, or Syria, or Assyria,
or Babylonia. It was, like Greece, a congeries of homogeneous tribes,
who had never been amalgamated into a single political entity, and who
clung fondly to the idea of separate independence. Tyre and Sidon are
often spoken of as if they were metropolitical cities; but it may be
doubted whether there was ever a time when either of them could claim
even a temporary authority over the whole country. Each, no doubt, from
time to time, exercised a sort of hegemony over a certain number of the
inferior cities; but there was no organised confederacy, no obligation
of any one city to submit to another, and no period, as far as our
knowledge extends, at which all the cities acknowledged a single one as
their mistress.[41] Between Tyre and Sidon there was especial jealousy,
and the acceptance by either of the leadership of the other, even
temporarily, was a rare fact in the history of the nation.
According to the geographers, the cities of Phoenicia, from Laodicea
in the extreme north to Joppa at the extreme south, numbered about
twenty-five. These were Laodicea, Gabala, Balanea, Paltos; Aradus,
with its dependency Antaradus; Marathus; Simyra, Orthosia, and Arka;
Tripolis, Calamus, Trieris, and Botrys; Byblus or Gebal; Aphaca;
Berytus; Sidon, Sarepta, and Ornithonpolis; Tyre and Ecdippa; Accho and
Porphyreon; Dor and Joppa. Of the twenty-five a certain number were,
historically and politically, insignificant; for instance, Gabala,
Balanea, Paltos, Orthosia, Calamus, Trieris, Botrys, Sarepta,
Ornithonpolis, Porphyreon. Sarepta is immortalised by the memory of its
pious widow,[42] and Orthosia has a place in history from its connection
with the adventures of Trypho;[43] but the rest of the list are little
more than “geographical expressions.” There remain fifteen important
cities, of which six may be placed in the first rank and nine in the
second--the six being Tyre, Sidon, Aradus, Byblus or Gebal, Marathus,
and Tripolis; the nine, Laodicea, Simyra, Arka, Aphaca, Berytus,
Ecdippa, Accho, Dor, and Joppa. It will be sufficient in the present
place to give some account of these fifteen.
There are some grounds for considering Sidon to have been the most
ancient of the Phoenician towns. In the Book of Genesis Sidon is called
“the eldest born of Canaan,”[44] and in Joshua, where Tyre is simply a
“fenced city” or fort,[45] it is “_Great_ Zidon.”[46] Homer frequently
mentions it,[47] whereas he takes no notice of Tyre. Justin makes it the
first town which the Phoenicians built on arriving at the shores of the
Mediterranean.[48] The priority of Sidon in this respect was, however,
not universally acknowledged, since Tyre claims on some of her coins to
have been “the mother-city of the Sidonians,”[49] and Marathus was also
regarded as a city of the very highest antiquity.[410] The city stood
in Lat. 33º 34´ nearly, on the flat plain between the mountains and the
shore, opposite a small promontory which projects into the sea towards
the west, and is flanked towards the north-west and north by a number
of rocky islands. The modern town of Saïda stands close upon the shore,
occupying the greater part of the peninsula and a portion of the plain
on which it abuts; but the ancient city is found to have been situated
entirely in the plain, and its most western traces are almost half a
mile from the nearest point of the present walls.[411] The modern Saïda
has clustered itself about what was the principal port of the ancient
town, which lay north of the promontory, and was well protected from
winds, on the west by the principal island, which has a length of 250
yards, and on the north by a long range of islets and reefs, extending
in a north-easterly direction a distance of at least 600 yards. An
excellent roadstead was thus formed by nature, which art early improved
into a small but commodious harbour, a line of wall being carried out
from the coast northwards to the most easterly of the islets, and the
only unprotected side of the harbour being thus securely closed. There
is reason to believe that this work was completed anterior to the time
of Alexander,[412] and was therefore due to the Phoenicians themselves,
who were not blind to the advantages of closed harbours over open
roadsteads. They seem also to have strengthened the natural barrier
towards the north by a continuous wall of huge blocks along the reefs
and the islets, portions of which are still in existence.
Besides this excellent harbour, 500 yards long by 200 broad, Sidon
possessed on the southern side of the peninsula a second refuge for its
ships, less safe, but still more spacious. This was an oval basin, 600
yards long from north to south, and nearly 400 broad from east to west,
wholly surrounded by land on three sides, the north, the east, and the
south, but open for the space of about 200 yards towards the west. In
fine weather this harbour was probably quite as much used as the other;
it was protected from all the winds that were commonly prevalent, and
offered a long stretch of sandy shore free from buildings on which
vessels could be drawn up.
It is impossible to mark out the enceinte of the ancient town, or indeed
to emplace it with any exactitude. Only scanty and scattered remains are
left here and there between the modern city and the mountains. There
is, however, towards the south an extensive necropolis,[413] which marks
perhaps the southern limits of the city, while towards the east the
hills are penetrated by a number of sepulchural grottoes, and tombs
of various kinds, which were also probably outside the walls. Were a
northern necropolis to be discovered, some idea would be furnished
of the extent of the city; but at present the plain has been very
imperfectly examined in this direction. It is from the southern
necropolis that the remarkable inscription was disinterred which first
established beyond all possibility of doubt the fact that the modern
Saïda is the representative of the ancient Sidon.[414]
Twenty miles to the south of Sidon was the still more important
city--the double city--of Tzur or Tyre. Tzur signifies “a rock,” and
at this point of the Syrian coast (Lat. 33º 17´) there lay at a short
distance from the shore a set of rocky islets, on the largest of which
the original city seems to have been built. Indentations are so rare and
so shallow along this coast, that a maritime people naturally looked
out for littoral islands, as affording under the circumstances the best
protection against boisterous winds; and, as in the north Aradus was
early seized and occupied by Phoenician settlers, so in the south the
rock, which became the heart of Tyre, was seized, fortified, covered
with buildings, and converted from a bare stony eminence into a town. At
the same time, or not much later, a second town grew up on the
mainland opposite the isle; and the two together were long regarded as
constituting a single city. After the time of Alexander the continental
town went to decay; and the name of Palæ-Tyrus was given to it,[415] to
distinguish it from the still flourishing city on the island.
The islands of which we have spoken formed a chain running nearly in
parallel to the coast. They were some eleven or twelve in number. The
southern extremity of the chain was formed by three, the northern by
seven, small islets.[416] Intermediate between these lay two islands of
superior size, which were ultimately converted into one by filling up
the channel between them. A further enlargement was effected by means
of substructions thrown out into the sea, probably on two sides, towards
the east and towards the south. By these means an area was produced
sufficient for the site of a considerable town. Pliny estimated the
circumference of the island Tyre at twenty-two stades,[417] or somewhat
more than two miles and a half. Modern measurements make the actual
present area one of above 600,000 square yards.[418] The shape was an
irregular trapezium, 1,400 yards along its western face, 800 yards along
its southern one, 600 along the face towards the east, and rather more
along the face towards the north-east.
The whole town was surrounded by a lofty wall, the height of which, on
the side which faced the mainland, was, we are told, a hundred and fifty
feet.[419] Towards the south the foundations of the wall were laid in
the sea, and may still be traced.[420] They consist of huge blocks of
stone strengthened inside by a conglomerate of very hard cement. The
wall runs out from the south-eastern corner of what was the original
island, in a direction a little to the south of west, till it reaches
the line of the western coast, when it turns at a sharp angle, and
rejoins the island at its south-western extremity. At present sea is
found for some distance to the north of the wall, and this fact has been
thought to show that originally it was intended for a pier or quay, and
the space within it for a harbour;[421] but the latest explorers are
of opinion that the space was once filled up with masonry and rubbish,
being an artificial addition to the island, over which, in the course of
time, the sea has broken, and reasserted its rights.[422]
Like Sidon, Tyre had two harbours, a northern and a southern. The
northern, which was called the “Sidonian,” because it looked towards
Sidon, was situated on the east of the main island, towards the northern
end of it. On the west and south the land swept round it in a natural
curve, effectually guarding two sides; while the remaining two were
protected by art. On the north a double line of wall was carried out in
a direction a little south of east for a distance of about three hundred
yards, the space between the two lines being about a hundred feet. The
northern line acted as a sort of breakwater, the southern as a pier.
This last terminated towards the east on reaching a ridge of natural
rock, and was there met by the eastern wall of the harbour, which
ran out in a direction nearly due north for a distance of 250 yards,
following the course of two reefs, which served as its foundation.
Between the reefs was a space of about 140 feet, which was left open,
but could be closed, if necessary, by a boom or chain, which was kept in
readiness. The dimensions of this northern harbour are thought to have
been about 370 yards from north to south, by about 230 from east to
west,[423] or a little short of those which have been assigned to the
northern harbour of Sidon. Concerning the southern harbour there is
considerable difference of opinion. Some, as Kenrick and M. Bertou,
place it due south of the island, and regard its boundary as the line
of submarine wall which we have already described and regarded as
constituting the southern wall of the town. Others locate it towards
the south-east, and think that it is now entirely filled up. A canal
connected the two ports, so that vessels could pass from the one to the
other.
The most remarkable of the Tyrian buildings were the royal palace, which
abutted on the southern wall of the town, and the temples dedicated
to Baal, Melkarth, Agenor, and Astarte or Ashtoreth.[424] The probable
character of the architecture of these buildings will be hereafter
considered. With respect to their emplacement, it would seem by the most
recent explorations that the temple of Baal, called by the Greeks that
of the Olympian Zeus, stood by itself on what was originally a separate
islet at the south-western corner of the city,[425] while that of
Melkarth occupied a position as nearly as possible central,[426] and
that of Agenor was placed near the point in which the island terminates
toward the north.[427] The houses of the inhabitants were closely
crowded together, and rose to the height of several storeys.[428] There
was an open space for the transaction of business within the walls
towards the east, called Eurychorus by those Phoenicians who wrote their
histories in Greek.[429] The town was full of dyeing establishments,
which made it difficult to traverse.[430] The docks and dockyards were
towards the east.
The population of the island Tyre, when it was captured by Alexander,
seems to have been about forty thousand souls.[431] As St. Malo, a city
less than one-third of the size, is known to have had at one time a
population of twelve thousand,[432] the number, though large for the
area, would seem not to be incredible.
Of Palæ-Tyrus, or the continental Tyre, no satisfactory account can
be given, since it has absolutely left no remains, and the classical
notices on the subject are exceedingly scanty. At different periods of
its history, its limits and extent probably varied greatly. Its position
was nearly opposite the island, and in the early times it must have
been, like the other coast towns, strongly fortified; but after its
capture by Alexander the walls do not seem to have been restored, and it
became an open straggling town, extending along the shore from the
river Leontes (Litany) to Ras-el-Ain, a distance of seven miles or more.
Pliny, who wrote when its boundary could still be traced, computed the
circuit of Palæ-Tyrus and the island Tyre together at nineteen Roman
miles,[433] the circuit of the island by itself being less than three
miles. Its situation, in a plain of great fertility, at the foot of the
south-western spurs of Lebanon, and near the gorge of the Litany, was
one of great beauty. Water was supplied to it in great abundance from
the copious springs of Ras-el-Ain, which were received into a reservoir
of an octagonal shape, sixty feet in diameter, and inclosed within walls
eighteen feet in height,[434] whence they were conveyed northwards to
the heart of the city by an aqueduct, whereof a part is still remaining.
The most important city of Phoenicia towards the north was Arvad, or
Aradus. Arvad was situated, like Tyre, on a small island off the Syrian
coast, and lay in Lat. 34º 48´ nearly. It was distant from the shore
about two miles and a half. The island was even smaller than that which
formed the nucleus of Tyre, being only about 800 yards, or less than
half a mile in length, by 500 yards, or rather more than a quarter of
a mile in breadth.[435] The axis of the island was from north-west to
south-east. It was a bare rock, low and flat, without water, and without
any natural soil. The iron coast was surrounded on three sides, the
north, the west, and the south, by a number of rocks and small islets,
which fringed it like the trimming of a shawl. Its Phoenician occupiers
early converted this debatable territory, half sea half shore, into
solid land, by filling up the interstices between the rocks with squared
stones and a solid cement as hard as the rock itself, which remains
to this day.[436] The north-eastern portion, which has a length of 150
yards by a breadth of 125, is perfectly smooth and almost flat, but with
a slight slope towards the east, which is thought to show that it was
used as a sort of dry dock, on which to draw up the lighter vessels, for
safety or for repairs.[437] The western and southern increased the area
for house-building. Anciently, as at Tyre, the houses were built
very close together, and had several storeys,[438] for the purpose
of accommodating a numerous population. The island was wholly without
natural harbour; but on the eastern side, which faced the mainland, and
was turned away from the prevailing winds, the art and industry of the
inhabitants constructed two ports of a fair size. This was effected by
carrying out from the shore three piers at right angles into the sea,
the central one to a distance of from seventy to a hundred yards, and
the other two very nearly as far--and thus forming two rectangular
basins, one on either side of the central pier, which were guarded from
winds on three sides, and only open towards the east, a quarter from
which the winds are seldom violent, and on which the mainland, less than
three miles off, forms a protection. The construction of the central
pier is remarkable. It is formed of massive blocks of sandstone, which
are placed transversely, so that their length forms the thickness of the
pier, and their ends the wall on either side. On both sides of the wall
are quays of concrete.[439]
The line of the ancient enceinte may still be traced around the three
outer sides of the island. It is a gigantic work, composed of stones
from fifteen to eighteen feet long, placed transversely, like those of
the centre pier, and in two places still rising to the height of five or
six courses (from thirty to forty feet).[440] The blocks are laid side
by side without mortar; they are roughly squared, and arranged generally
in regular courses; but sometimes two courses for a while take the place
of one.[441] There is a want of care in the arrangement of the blocks,
joints in one course being occasionally directly over joints in the
course below it. The stones are without any bevel or ornamentation of
any kind. They have been quarried in the island itself, and the beds of
rock from which they were taken may be seen at no great distance. At one
point in the western side of the island, the native rock itself has
been cut into the shape of the wall, and made to take the place of the
squared stones for the distance of about ten feet.[442] A moat has also
been cut along the entire western side, which, with its glacis, served
apparently to protect the wall from the fury of the waves.[443]
We know nothing of the internal arrangements of the ancient town beyond
the fact of the closeness and loftiness of the houses. Externally Aradus
depended on her possessions upon the mainland both for water and for
food. The barren rock could grow nothing, and was moreover covered with
houses. Such rainwater as fell on the island was carefully collected and
stored in tanks and reservoirs,[444] the remains of which are still
to be seen. But the ordinary supply of water for daily consumption was
derived in time of peace from the opposite coast. When this supply was
cut off by an enemy Aradus had still one further resource. Midway in
the channel between the island and the continent there burst out at the
bottom of the sea a fresh-water spring of great strength; by confining
this spring within a hemisphere of lead to which a leathern pipe was
attached the much-needed fluid was raised to the surface and received
into a vessel moored upon the spot, whence supplies were carried to
the island.[445] The phenomenon still continues, though the modern
inhabitants are too ignorant and unskilful to profit by it.[446]
On the mainland Aradus possessed a considerable tract, and had a number
of cities subject to her. Of these Strabo enumerates six, viz. Paltos,
Balanea, Carnus--which he calls the naval station of Aradus--Enydra,
Marathus, and Simyra.[447] Marathus was the most important of these. Its
name recalls the “Brathu” of Philo-Byblius[448] and the “Martu” of the
early Babylonian inscriptions,[449] which was used as a general term by
some of the primitive monarchs almost in the sense of “Syria.” The word
is still preserved in the modern “M’rith” or “Amrith,” a name attached
to some extensive ruins in the plain south-east of Aradus, which have
been carefully examined by M. Renan.[450] Marathus was an ancient
Phoenician town, probably one of the most ancient, and was always looked
upon with some jealousy by the Aradians, who ultimately destroyed it and
partitioned out the territory among their own citizens.[451] The same
fate befell Simyra,[452] a place of equal antiquity, the home probably
of those Zemarites who are coupled with the Arvadites in Genesis.[453]
Simyra appears as “Zimirra” in the Assyrian inscriptions, where it is
connected with Arka,[454] which was not far distant. Its exact site,
which was certainly south of Amrith, seems to be fixed by the name
Sumrah, which attaches to some ruins in the plain about a mile and a
half north of the Eleutherus (Nahr-el-Kebir) and within a mile of
the sea.[455] The other towns--Paltos, Balanea, Carnus,[456] and
Enydra--were in the more northern portion of the plain, as was also
Antaradus, now Tortosa, where there are considerable remains, but of a
date long subsequent to the time of Phoenician ascendancy.
Of the remaining Phoenician cities the most important seems to have
been Gebal, or Byblus. Mentioned under the name of Gubal in the Assyrian
inscriptions as early as the time of Jehu[457] (ab. B.C. 840), and
glanced at even earlier in the Hebrew records, which tell of its
inhabitants, the Giblites,[458] Gebal is found as a town of note in the
time of Alexander the Great,[459] and again in that of Pompey.[460] The
traditions of the Phoenicians themselves made it one of the most ancient
of the cities; and the historian Philo, who was a native of the place,
ascribes its foundation to Kronos or Saturn.[461] It was an especially
holy city, devoted in the early times to the worship of Beltis,[462] and
in the later to that of Adonis.[463] The position is marked beyond all
reasonable doubt by the modern Jebeïl, which retains the original
name very slightly modified, and answers completely to the ancient
descriptions. The town lies upon the coast, in Lat. 34º 10´ nearly,
about halfway between Tripolis and Berytus, four miles north of the
point where the Adonis river (now the Ibrahim) empties itself into the
sea. There is a “small but well-sheltered port,”[464] formed mainly by
two curved piers which are carried out from the shore towards the north
and south, and which leave between them only a narrow entrance. The
castle occupies a commanding position on a hill at a little distance
from the shore, and has a keep built of bevelled stones of a large size.
Several of them measure from fifteen to eighteen feet in length, and are
from five to six feet thick.[465] They were probably quarried by Giblite
“stone-cutters,” but placed in their present position during the middle
ages.
Tripolis, situated halfway between Byblus and Aradus, was not one of
the original Phoenician cities, but was a joint colony from the three
principal settlements, Tyre, Sidon, and Aradus.[466] The date of
its foundation, and its native Phoenician name, are unknown to us:
conjecture hovers between Hosah, Mahalliba, Uznu, and Siannu, maritime
towns of Phoenicia known to the Assyrians,[467] but unmentioned by any
Greek author. The situation was a promontory, which runs out towards the
north-west, in Lat. 34º 27´ nearly, for the distance of a mile, and
is about half a mile wide. The site is “well adapted for a haven, as
a chain of seven small islands, running out to the north-west, affords
shelter in the direction from which the most violent winds blow.”[468]
The remotest of these islands is ten miles distant from the shore.[469]
We are told that the colonists who founded Tripolis did not intermix,
but had their separate quarters of the town assigned to them, each
surrounded by its own wall, and lying at some little distance one from
the other.[470] There are no present traces of this arrangement, which
seems indicative of distrust; but some remains have been found of a wall
which was carried across the isthmus on the land side.[471] Tripolis is
now Tarabolus.
Aphaca, the only inland Phoenician town of any importance, is now Afka,
and is visited by most travellers and tourists. It was situated in a
beautiful spot at the head of the Adonis river,[472] a sacred stream
fabled to run with blood once a year, at the festival which commemorated
the self-mutilation of the Nature-god Adonis. Aphaca was a sort of
Delphi, a collection of temples rather than a town. It was dedicated
especially to the worship of the Syrian goddess, Ashtoreth or
Venus, sometimes called Beltis or Baaltis, whose orgies were of so
disgracefully licentious a character that they were at last absolutely
forbidden by Constantine. At present there are no remains on the
ancient site except one or two ruins of edifices decidedly Roman in
character.[473] Nor is the gorge of the Adonis any richer in ancient
buildings. There was a time when the whole valley formed a sort of
“Holy Land,”[474] and at intervals on its course were shown “Tombs of
Adonis,”[475] analogous to the artificial “Holy Sepulchres” of many
European towns in the middle ages. All, however, have disappeared, and
the traveller looks in vain for any traces of that curious cult which
in ancient times made Aphaca and its river one of the most noted of the
holy spots of Syria and a favourite resort of pilgrims.
Twenty-three miles south of Byblus was Berytus, which disputed with
Byblus the palm of antiquity.[476] Berytus was situated on a promontory
in Lat. 33º 54´, and had a port of a fair size, protected towards the
west by a pier, which followed the line of a ridge of rocks running
out from the promontory towards the north. It was not of any importance
during the flourishing Phoenician period, but grew to greatness under
the Romans,[477] when its harbour was much improved, and the town
greatly extended.[478] By the time of Justinian it had become the
chief city of Phoenicia, and was celebrated as a school of law and
science.[479] The natural advantages of its situation have caused it to
retain a certain importance, and in modern times it has drawn to itself
almost the whole of the commerce which Europe maintains with Syria.
Arka, or Arqa, the home of the Arkites of Genesis,[480] can never have
been a place of much consequence. It lies at a distance of four miles
from the shore, on one of the outlying hills which form the skirts of
Lebanon, in Lat. 34º 33, Long. 33º 44´ nearly. The towns nearest to it
were Orthosia, Simyra, and Tripolis. It was of sufficient consequence
to be mentioned in the Assyrian Inscriptions,[481] though not to attract
the notice of Strabo.
Ecdippa, south of Tyre, in Lat. 33º 1´, is no doubt the scriptural
Achzib,[482] which was made the northern boundary of Asher at the
division of the Holy Land among the twelve tribes. The Assyrian monarchs
speak of it under the same name, but mention it rarely, and apparently
as a dependency of Sidon.[483] The old name, in the shortened form of
“Zeb,” still clings to the place.
Still further to the south, five miles from Ecdippa, and about
twenty-two miles from Tyre, lay Akko or Accho, at the northern extremity
of a wide bay, which terminates towards the south in the promontory of
Carmel. Next to the Bay of St. George, near Beyrout, this is the best
natural roadstead on the Syrian coast; and this advantage, combined with
its vicinity to the plain of Esdraelon, has given to Accho at various
periods of history a high importance, as in some sense “the key of
Syria.” The Assyrians, in their wars with Palestine and Egypt, took care
to conquer and retain it.[484] When the Ptolemies became masters of
the tract between Egypt and Mount Taurus, they at once saw its value,
occupied it, strengthened its defences, and gave it the name of
Ptolemaïs. The old appellation has, however, reasserted itself; and,
as Acre, the city played an important part in the Crusades, in the
Napoleonic attempt on Egypt, and in the comparatively recent expedition
of Ibrahim Pasha. It had a small port of its own to the south-east of
the promontory on which it stood, which, like the other ports of the
ancient Phoenicia, is at the present time almost wholly sanded up.[485]
But its roadstead was of more importance than its port, and was used by
the Persians as a station for their fleet, from which they could keep
watch on Egypt.[486]
South of Accho and south of Carmel, close upon the shore, which is here
low and flat, was Dor, now Tantura, the seat of a kingdom in the time
of Joshua,[487] and allotted after its conquest to Manasseh.[488] Here
Solomon placed one of his purveyors,[489] and here the great Assyrian
monarch Tiglath-pileser II. likewise placed a “governor,” about B.C.
732, when he reduced it.[490] Dor was one of the places where the
shell-fish which produced the purple dye were most abundant, and
remained in the hands of the Phoenicians during all the political
changes which swept over Syria and Palestine to a late period.[491] It
had fallen to ruin, however, by the time of Jerome,[492] and the present
remains are unimportant.
The extreme Phoenician city on the south was Japho or Joppa. It lay in
Lat. 32º 2´, close to the territory of Dan,[493] but continued to be
held by the Phoenicians until the time of the Maccabees,[494] when it
became Jewish. The town was situated on the slope of a low hill near the
sea, and possessed anciently a tolerable harbour, from which a trade was
carried on with Tartessus.[495] As the seaport nearest to Jerusalem,
it was naturally the chief medium of the commerce which was carried on
between the Phoenicians and the Jews. Thither, in the time of Solomon,
were brought the floats of timber cut in Lebanon for the construction
of the Temple and the royal palace; and thither, no doubt, were conveyed
“the wheat, and the barley, and the oil, and the wine,” which the
Phoenicians received in return for their firs and cedars.[496] A similar
exchange of commodities was made nearly five centuries later at the same
place, when the Jews returned from the captivity under Zerubbabel.[497]
In Roman times the foundation of Cæsaræa reduced Joppa to
insignificance; yet it still, as Jaffa or Yáfa, retains a certain amount
of trade, and is famous for its palm-groves and gardens.
Joppa towards the south was balanced by Ramantha, or Laodicea, towards
the north. Fifty miles north of Aradus and Antaradus (Tortosa), in
Lat. 35º 30´ nearly, occupying the slope of a hill facing the sea, with
chalky cliffs on either side, that, like those of Dover, whiten the sea,
and with Mount Casius in the background, lay the most northern of all
the Phoenician cities in a fertile and beautiful territory.[498] The
original appellation was, we are told, Ramantha,[499] a name intended
probably to mark the _lofty_ situation of the place;[4100] but this
appellation was forced to give way to the Greek term, Laodicea, when
Seleucus Nicator, having become king of Syria, partially rebuilt
Ramantha and colonised it with Greeks.[4101] The coins of the city under
the Seleucidæ show its semi-Greek, semi-Phoenician character, having
legends in both languages. One of these, in the Phoenician character,
is read as _l’Ladika am b’Canaan_, i.e. “of Laodicea, a metropolis
in Canaan,” and seems to show that the city claimed not only to be
independent, but to have founded, and to hold under its sway, a number
of smaller towns.[4102] It may have exercised a dominion over the entire
tract from Mount Casius to Paltos, where the dominion of Aradus began.
Laodicea is now Latakia, and is famous for the tobacco grown in the
neighbourhood. It still makes use of its ancient port, which would be
fairly commodious if it were cleared of the sand that at present chokes
it.[4103]
It has been said that Phoenicia was composed of “three worlds” with
distinct characteristics;[4104] but perhaps the number of the “worlds”
should be extended to five. First came that of Ramantha, reaching from
the Mons Casius to the river Badas, a distance of about fifty miles, a
remote and utterly sequestered region, into which neither Assyria nor
Egypt ever thought of penetrating. Commerce with Cyprus and southern
Asia Minor was especially open to the mariners of this region, who could
see the shores of Cyprus without difficulty on a clear day. Next came
the “world” of Aradus, reaching along the coast from the Badas to the
Eleutherus, another stretch of fifty miles, and including the littoral
islands, especially that of Ruad, on which Aradus was built. This tract
was less sequestered than the more northern one, and contains traces of
having been subjected to influences from Egypt at an early period. The
gap between Lebanon and Bargylus made the Aradian territory accessible
from the Coelesyrian valley; and there is reason to believe that one of
the roads which Egyptian and Assyrian conquest followed in these parts
was that which passed along the coast as far as the Eleutherus and then
turned eastward and north-eastward to Emesa (Hems) and Hamath. It must
have been conquerors marching by this line who set up their effigies at
the mouth of the Nahr-el-Kelb, and those who pursued it would naturally
make a point of reducing Aradus. Thus this second Phoenician “world” has
not the isolated character of the first, but shows marks of Assyrian,
and still more of early Egyptian, influence. The third Phoenician
“world” is that of Gebal or Byblus. Its limits would seem to be the
Eleutherus on the north, and on the south the Tamyras, which would allow
it a length of a little above eighty miles. This district, it has been
said, preserved to the last days of paganism a character which was
original and well marked. Within its limits the religious sentiment had
more intensity and played a more important part in life than elsewhere
in Phoenicia. Byblus was a sort of Phoenician Jerusalem. By their turn
of mind and by the language which they spoke, the Byblians or Giblites
seem to have been, of all the Phoenicians, those who most resembled the
Hebrews. King Jehavmelek, who probably reigned at Byblus about B.C. 400,
calls himself “a just king,” and prays that he may obtain favour in
the sight of God. Later on it was at Byblus, and in the valleys of the
Lebanon depending on it, that the inhabitants celebrated those mysteries
of Astarte, together with that orgiastic worship of Adonis or Tammuz,
which were so popular in Syria during the whole of the Greco-Roman
period.[4105] The fourth Phoenician “world” was that of Tyre and Sidon,
beginning at the Tamyras and ending with the promontory of Carmel. Here
it was that the Phoenician character developed especially those traits
by which it is commonly known to the world at large--a genius for
commerce and industry, a passion for the undertaking of long and
perilous voyages, an adaptability to circumstances of all kinds, and an
address in dealing with wild tribes of many different kinds which has
rarely been equalled and never exceeded. “All that we are about to
say of Phoenicia,” declares the author recently quoted, “of its rapid
expansion and the influence which it exercised over the nations of the
West, must be understood especially of Tyre and Sidon. The other towns
might furnish sailors to man the Tyrian fleet or merchandise for their
cargo, but it was Sidon first and then (with even more determination
and endurance) Tyre which took the initiative and the conduct of the
movement; it was the mariners of these two towns who, with eyes fixed
on the setting sun, pushed their explorations as far as the Pillars
of Hercules, and eventually even further.”[4106] The last and least
important of the Phoenician “worlds” was the southern one, extending
sixty miles from Carmel to Joppa--a tract from which the Phoenician
character was well nigh trampled out by the feet of strangers ever
passing up and down the smooth and featureless region, along which lay
the recognised line of route between Syria and Mesopotamia on the one
hand, Philistia and Egypt on the other.[4107]