I. There Is Good Reason To Believe That Most Of The Maritime Adventures And
Enterprises Which Have Rendered The Phoenicians
So famous in antiquity,
ought to be fixed between the death of Jacob, and the establishment of
monarchy among the
Israelites; that is, between the years 1700 and 1095
before Christ; but even before this, there are authentic notices of
Phoenician commerce and navigation. In the days of Abraham they were
considered as a very powerful people: and express mention is made of their
maritime trade in the last words of Jacob to his children. Moses informs us
that Tarshish (wherever it was situated) was visited by the Phoenicians.
When this people were deprived of a great portion of their territory by the
Israelites under Joshua, they still retained the city of Sidon; and from it
their maritime expeditions proceeded. The order of time in which they took
place, as well as their object and result, are very imperfectly known; it
seems certain, however, that they either regularly traded with, or formed
colonies or establishments for the purpose of trade at first in Cyprus and
Rhodes, and subsequently in Greece, Sicily, Sardinia, Gaul, and the
southern part of Spain. About 1250 years before Christ, the Phoenician
ships ventured beyond the Straits, entered the Atlantic, and founded Cadiz.
It is probable, also, that nearly about the same period they formed
establishments on the western coast of Africa. We have the express
authority of Homer, that at the Trojan war the Phoenicians furnished other
nations with many articles that could contribute to luxury and
magnificence; and Scripture informs us, that the ships of Hyram, king of
Tyre, brought gold to Solomon from Ophir. That they traded to Britain for
tin at so early a period as that which we are now considering, will appear
very doubtful, if the metal mentioned by Moses, (Numbers, chap. xxxi. verse
22.) was really tin, and if Homer is accurate in his statement that this
metal was used at the siege of Troy; for, certainly, at neither of these
periods had the Phoenicians ventured so far from their own country.
Hitherto we have spoken of Sidon as the great mart of Phoenician commerce;
at what period Tyre was built and superseded Sidon is not known. In the
time of Homer, Tyre is not even mentioned: but very soon afterwards it is
represented by Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the other prophets, as a city
of unrivalled trade and wealth. Ezekiel, who prophesied about the year 595
B.C. has given a most picturesque description of the wealth of Tyre, all of
which must have proceeded from her commerce, and consequently points out
and proves its great extent and importance. The fir-trees of Senir, the
cedars of Lebanon, the oaks of Bashan, the ivory of the Indies, the fine
linen of Egypt, and the hyacinth and purple of the isles of Elishah, are
enumerated among the articles used for their ships. Silver, tin, lead, and
vessels of brass; slaves, horses, and mules; carpets, ivory, and ebony;
pearls and silk; wheat, balm, honey, oil and gums; wine, and wool, and
iron, are enumerated as brought into the port of Tyre by sea, or to its
fairs by land, from Syria, Damascus, Greece, Arabia, and other places, the
exact site of which is not known.[1] Within the short period of fifteen or
twenty years after this description was written, Tyre was besieged by
Nebuchadnezzar; and after an obstinate and very protracted resistance, it
was taken and destroyed. The inhabitants, however, were enabled to retire
during the siege, with the greatest part of their property, to an island
near the shore, where they built New Tyre, which soon surpassed the old
city both in commerce and shipping.
A short time previous to the era generally assigned to the destruction of
old Tyre, the Phoenicians are said to have performed a voyage, which, if
authentic, may justly be regarded as the most important that the annals of
this people record: we allude to the circumnavigation of Africa. As this
voyage has given rise to much discussion, we may be excused for deviating
from the cursory and condensed character of this part of our work, in order
to investigate its probable authenticity. All that we know regarding it is
delivered to us by Herodotus; according to this historian, soon after
Nechos, king of Egypt, had finished the canal that united the Nile and the
Arabian Gulf, he sent some Phoenicians from the borders of the Red Sea,
with orders to keep always along the coast of Africa, and to return by the
pillars of Hercules into the northern ocean. Accordingly the Phoenicians
embarked on the Erythrean Sea, and navigated in the southern ocean. When
autumn arrived, they landed on the part of Libya which they had reached,
and sowed corn; here they remained till harvest, reaped the corn, and then
re-embarked. In this manner they sailed for two years; in the third they
passed the pillars of Hercules, and returned to Egypt. They related that in
sailing round Libya, the sun was on their right hand. This relation,
continues Herodotus, seems incredible to me, but perhaps it will not appear
so to others. Before proceeding to an enquiry into the authenticity of this
maritime enterprize, it may be proper to explain what is meant by the sun
appearing on the right hand of the Phoenician navigators. The apparent
motion of the heavens being from east to west, the west was regarded by the
ancients as the foremost part of the world; the north, of course, was
deemed the right, and the south the left of the world.
The principal circumstance attending this narrative, which is supposed to
destroy or greatly weaken its credibility, is the short period of time in
which this navigation was accomplished: it is maintained, that even at
present, it would certainly require eighteen months to coast Africa from
the Red Sea to the straits of Gibraltar; and "allowing nine months for each
interval on shore, between the sowing and reaping, the Phoenicians could
not have been more than eighteen months at sea."
To this objection it may be replied, in the first place, that between the
tropics (within which space nearly the whole of the navigation was
performed) nine months is much too long a time to allow for each interval
on shore, between the sowing and the reaping:
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