MARITIME EXPEDITIONS OF THE PHOENICIANS. his voyage. For this act of resolution he was richly rewarded on his return to Tyre. The Phoenician commerce on the Red Sea arose out of their connection with the Jews, and the extension of the dominions of King David. Hiram and Solomon are said to have sent their ships to Ophir for gold. Much difference of opinion has prevailed respecting the situation of this country. Heeren is of opinion that Ophir denotes no particular spot, but all the rich countries of the south lying on the African, Arabian, and Indian coasts, as far as they were then known. Three years were spent in one of these voyages; and it appears, from the Hebrew writings, that the profits derived from them were immense. The Phoenicians also fitted out exploring expeditions, for the purpose of opening new channels of commerce. Herodotus has preserved some particulars respecting a few of these enterprises. In one of these voyages toward the Hellespont, which they undertook in the very infancy of their navigation, they discovered the Island of Thasos, on the coast of Thrace, and were repaid for their enterprise by the rich gold mines of that island. Another of their undertakings is described in the following words: — "When Necho, king of Egypt, had desisted from his attempt to join the Red Sea with the Mediterranean by means of a canal, he despatched some vessels, under the conduct of the Phoenicians, with orders to pass the Pillars of Hercules, and, after penetrating the Northern Ocean, to return to Egypt. These Phoenicians, therefore, taking their course by the way of the Red Sea, sailed onward to the Southern Ocean. Upon the approach of autumn, they landed in Libya, and planted some corn in the place where they first went on shore. When this was ripe, they cut it down, and set sail again. Having, in this manner, consumed two years, in the third they passed the Pillars of Hercules, and returned to Egypt. Their story may be believed by others, but to me it appears incredible; for they affirm that, when they sailed round Libya, they had the sun on their right hand." When Herodotus wrote the above, the Greeks were unacquainted with the phenomena of a shadow falling to the south; and such a circumstance was not likely to be invented in that age. It is evident that if the Phoenicians had actually sailed round the continent of Africa, they must of necessity have had the sun on their right hand, or to the north, and their shadow, consequently, to the south. The statement, therefore, which caused the historian to disbelieve the tale of the circumnavigation of Africa is one very strong proof of the reality of the event. Although doubts have been raised in modern times as to the correctness of this narration, Rennell and Heeren, two very learned and able writers, have refuted the objections. The Phoenicians do not appear to have reaped any advantage from this discovery; but this was doubtless owing to the wars of Nebuchadnezzar, which at this time gave a serious check both to their power and to that of the Egyptains. The art of navigation was carried to a high degree of improvement by the Phoenicians, and their commercial enterprise far surpassed that of the Venetians and the Genoese during the middle ages. Their numerous fleets were scattered over the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic and Indian Oceans; the Tyrian pennant waved at the same time on the coast of Britain and that of Ceylon. The Phoenicians knew nothing 225 of the mariner's compass, but steered their course, when out of sight of land, by the heavenly bodies. They were the first people who used rudders and sails. A curious anecdote is related by Herodotus, which shows at what time the Phoenician commerce with the west of Europe first became known to the Greeks. A merchant of Samos, named Colæus, while on a voyage from that island to Egypt, about the year 630 B. C., was driven out of his course by contrary winds, and obliged to scud to the westward, till, at length, he found himself outside the Pillars of Hercules, in the broad Atlantic Ocean. Here he put into a port on the coast of Spain, which proved to be Tartessus, where the Phoenicians had before established a colony. To his great joy and astonishment, he found a most inviting market for the cargo which he intended to carry to Egypt, and sold every article of goods on board at the most exorbitant price. "He and his crew," says Herodotus, "realized a profit from this voyage greater than ever before or since fell to the lot of any known man among the Greeks, except Sostratus, of Ægina, with whom no one can compete." The profits of the voyage were equal to eighty thousand dollars, without making any allowance for the superior value of money at that day. The fortunate adventurers, on their return to Samos, presented a votive offering to the temple of Juno at that place, consisting of a large bronze vase ornamented with projecting griffins' heads, and supported by three bronze kneeling figures of colossal stature. This accidental voyage of Colæus opened to the Greeks of that age a new world, hardly less important than was the discovery of America to the Europeans of the fifteenth century. The report of these gains was well calculated to act as a stimulant to enterprising mariners; and other Greeks, during the course of fifty years, pushed their exploring voyages along the shores of the Mediterranean, till they at length reached Tartessus. The land trade of the Phoenicians may be divided into three branches. The first of these comprises the southern traffic, or that with Arabia, India, and Egypt; the second is the eastern, or Assyrian and Babylonian; and the third is the northern, comprising the Armenian trade, or that overland with Scythia and the Caucasian countries. The trade with Arabia was direct, and an intercourse was kept up with every part of this country. Yemen, or Arabia the Happy, was not only important, in a commercial point of view, for its own productions of frankincense, myrrh, cassia, gold, and precious stones, but it was the great mart of Ethiopian and Indian merchandise, of which the more precious commodities were cinnamon, ivory, and ebony. Between Arabia and Phoenicia, the trade was carried on by caravans across the desert, till the Phoenicians established an emporium for commerce at a port on the Red Sea. Strabo informs us that the caravans were seventy days in going from Yemen to Petra. It seems that this caravan road must have passed through Mecca, the ancient Macoroba. The trade with Egypt was carried on entirely by land, for the entrance to Egypt by sea was forbidden to foreigners previous to the reign of Amasis. This trade was so extensive, that the Phoenician merchants occupied an entire district in the city of Memphis. One of the principal articles exported to Egypt was wine. Palestine was the granary of the Phoenicians. the corn of Judea surpassed that of Egypt. 226 LANGUAGE, ARTS, &c., OF THE PHOENICIANS. CHAPTER CXIII. As the Hebrews were not an inventive or manufacturing people, it is probable that they obtained their ornaments of dress and articles of household Language, Arts, Dress, Manners, &c., of the luxury from their neighbors the Phoenicians. In this Phoenicians-Celebrated Characters. view, it may be interesting to refer to the catalogue of THE Phoenician language was a dialect of the an- these articles in Isaiah, c. iii. v. 18. There can be cient Hebrew, and the same with that of the Canaan- little doubt that all these commodities were of Phaniites. The alphabet was that of the very oldest cian manufacture. "In that day the Lord will take Hebrew writings, and from this proceeded all the away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments about alphabets of the nations of Europe. The Greeks their feet, and their cauls, and their round tires like the ascribed the invention of letters to Cadmus. Proba-moon; the chains, the bracelets, and the mufflers; bly this is only a signification that they obtained them from the Phoenicians, for Cadm, in Hebrew, means east, and Phoenicia was an eastern country to the Greeks. Mathematics, astronomy, and the mechanic arts appear to have been the branches of knowledge chiefly cultivated by the Phoenicians. They were somewhat addicted to philosophical studies, and a Sidonian named Moschus is said to have taught the doctrine of atoms before the era of the Trojan war. The Phoenicians transmitted their sciences to the Greeks, and their country continued to be the seat of learning down to a very late period. The ancient paintings of the Egyptians afford us some very curious particulars respecting the personal appearance and dress of the Phoenicians, which circumstances, till within a few years, were regarded as utterly beyond the reach of historical investigation. They had dark, florid complexions, and well formed, regular features, approaching to the European cast. They had blue eyes and flaxen hair. The latter, when dressed for ornament, was powdered white and covered with a net-work of blue beads, or a close cap wound round by a fillet of scarlet leather, with two long ends hanging down behind, in the Egyptian fashion. the bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, and the head-bands, and the tablets, and the earrings; the rings, and nose-jewels; the changeable suits of apparel, and the mantles, and the wimples, and the crisping-pins; the glasses, and the fine linen, and the hoods, and the vails." Among the celebrated characters of Phoenicia, was Sanchoniathon, an ancient historian and native of Tyre, or Berytus, whom we have before mentioned. The time when he flourished is uncertain, but it is commonly supposed to have been near the period of the Trojan war. He wrote the history of his own country in the Phoenician language, which was translated into Greek by Philo of Byblos, and some fragments of this have been preserved by Porphyry and Eusebius. He also wrote a treatise on the religious institutions of the Phoenicians, another on the philosophy of Hermes, and a third on the Egyptian theology. All his writings, however, are lost, with the exception of the fragments above mentioned. These are considered as highly valuable on account of the agreement which exists between them and the books of the Old Testament.* * We have given the common received account of Sanchoniathon, but it is proper to state that modern scholars are sceptical, not only as to his works, but even as to his existence. The following extract furnishes the views on this side of the question: The Phoenician dress was generally a short cloak or cape thrown over the shoulders and reaching to the elbows, and confined at the waist by a golden girdle, which, in some cases, passed many times round the body and tied in front with a large bow-knot. The inner garment was of fine linen, bound round the waist and reaching nearly to the ankles. The Phoenicians also wore mantles and tunics of woollen stuff, which must have been of fine texture, as the contour of the arms and chest is represented in the pictures as visible beneath the mantle, which, as well as the tunic, was edged with gold lace. The colors were purple and scarlet, which were so arranged that one half the person was of one color and one half of the other: both colors were extremely bright, and the scarlet was spot-gery was executed. Philo was evidently one of the many ted with purple. In the Egyptian paintings, the Sidonians appear as allies of the Pharaohs in their wars with the other Canaanitish tribes. The statesmen and merchants are represented with the hair and beard long, and a fillet round the head. The soldiers are depicted with the hair, beard, and whiskers cropped close. The arms and accoutrements of the Sidonians were remarkable for their elegance and finish. The helmet was of silver, with a singular ornament at the crest, consisting of a disk and two horns of a heifer, or of a crescent moon. The breastplate was of silver, quilted upon a white linen garment, which was laced in front and reached up to the armpits, being supported by shoulder-straps. The shield was large and round; it was of iron, rimmed and studded with gold. The sword was of bronze, and two-edged. The spear was of great length. "It is quite clear, from the preceding account, that we have no evidence even for the existence of Sanchoniathon, except the testimony of Philo Byblius himself. He is not mentioned by any writer before Philo Byblius, not even by Josephus or by Philo Judæus, who might have been expected to have This is suspicious at first sight. heard, at least, of his name. The discovery of old books, written by an author, of whom no one has ever heard, and in a language few can read, is a kind of imposture known to modern as well as ancient times. The genuineness and authenticity of the work must rest entirely on the nature of its contents; and, even a superficial perusal of the extracts in Eusebius, will convince almost every scholar of the present day that the work was a forgery of Philo. Nor is it difficult to see with what object the for adherents of the doctrine of Euhemerus, that all the gods were originally men, who had distinguished themselves in their lives as kings, warriors, or benefactors of man, and became worshipped as divinities after their death. This doctrine Philo applied to the religious system of the Oriental nations, and especially of the Phoenicians; and, in order to gain more credit for his statements, he pretended they were taken from an ancient Phoenician writer. This writer, he says, was a native of Berytus, lived in the time of Semiramis, and dedicated his works to Abibalus, king of Berytus. Having thus invented a high antiquity for his Phoenician authority, he pretends that this writer had taken the greatest pains to obtain information, that he had received some of his accounts from Hierom balus, the priest of the god Jevo, and had collected others from inscriptions in the temples and the public records preserved in each city. This is all pure invention, to impose more effectually upon the public. The general nature of the work is in itself sufficient to prove it to be a forgery; but, in addition to this, we find an evident attempt to show that the Greek religion and mythology were derived from the Phoenician, and a confusion between the Phoenician and He Moschus, a native of Sidon, is celebrated as an | Heliodorus, preferring the honors of authorship to ancient philosophical teacher. He is said to have lived those of office, resigned his see and title. There about the time of the Trojan war, and to have taught is nothing in his work offensive to morals or decorum. the doctrine of atoms, or the construction of the uni- It was long supposed to be lost; but, in the sixteenth verse by the fortuitous concourse of particles of matter. century, a manuscript copy of it was found by a solVery little, however, is known of him. dier, at the capture and sack of Buda. Porphyry, one of the most learned and celebrated philosophers of the Plotinian school, was born at Tyre, A. D. 233. He was introduced at an early age to the study of literature and philosophy, under the Christian father, Origen. Afterwards he went to Athens, where he became the pupil of Longinus. He then visited Rome, and became the disciple of Plotinus, who esteemed him one of the brightest ornaments of his school. Porphyry was naturally a hypochondriac, and the fanatical spirit of the philosophy which he embraced, produced such an effect upon him, that he formed a resolution to commit suicide, in order that, according to the Platonic doctrine, he might release his soul from her wretched prison, the body. Plotinus, however, having discovered this mad design, dissuaded him from it, and advised him to divert his melancholy by quitting Rome and taking a journey to Sicily. With this advice Porphyry complied, and soon recovered his cheerfulness. According to the historian Socrates, Porphyry was originally a Christian; but having received a sound beating from some Christians in Palestine, he abjured that religion. We are not informed whether the beating was done with sticks or arguments. He died at Rome, at the age of seventy. He was a man of great learning and acuteness, and wrote on a variety of philosophical subjects; but most of his works have perished. His imagination appears to have been occasionally heated to such a degree, as to lead him into extravagant fanaticism. He relates that he was once in a sacred ecstasy, in which he saw the Supreme Intelligence, the God who is superior to all gods, without an image. He wrote a work, in fifteen books, against the Christians, of which only some fragments have been preserved. The emperors Constantine and Theodosius issued edicts commanding the writings of Porphyry to be destroyed. Heliodorus was born at Emesa, in Phoenicia, in the latter part of the fourth century. In his youth, he composed a romance in Greek, entitled Ethiopica, or the Loves of Theagenes and Chariclea. It is an ingenious and amusing story, and has served as a model for subsequent works of this class. The author was afterwards made a bishop of Thessaly. It is stated that an ecclesiastical synod required him either to burn his romance or give up his office, and that brew religions, which are of themselves sufficient to convince any one that the work was not of genuine Phoenician origin. But, though the work is thus clearly a forgery, the question still remains whether the name Sanchoniathon was a pure invention of Philo or not? Movers, who had discussed the whole subject with ability, thinks that Philo availed himself of a name already in use, though it was not the name of a person. He supposes that Sanchoniathon was the name of the sacred books of the Phoenicians." Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography, &c This romance of Heliodorus is written with remarkable elegance and perspicuity, considering the age in which he lived. His style possesses great sweetness and simplicity, and is entirely free from affectation. It abounds in descriptions, many of which are extremely interesting. His accounts of the manners and customs of the Egyptians are said to be very correct, and he describes particular places with an accuracy which gives an air of reality to his fictions. He seldom, however, delineates the great outlines of nature, or touches on those incidents which render scenery sublime or beautiful. He chiefly delights in minute descriptions of the pomp of embassies and processions and, as was natural in a priest — of sacrifices and religious rites. These might be tiresome in a modern novel, but the representation of manners, customs, and ceremonies is much more valuable in an old romance than pictures of general nature. A very curious illustration of the state of society among the nations bordering on the Mediterranean is afforded by this work. Pirates and robbers have a principal share in the events which it describes. Their leaders are not generally painted as endued with any peculiar bad qualities, or as exciting aversion in the other persons in the fiction. This representation appears not to be inconsistent with the manners of the period in which the events are supposed to have occurred. In the early ages of Greece, piracy was not accounted a dishonorable employment. In the ancient poets, the mariners who sail along the shore are usually accosted with the question, whether they are pirates; as if the inquiry would not be taken as an affront, and as if pirates would readily confess their vocation. Even as late as the Peloponnesian war, the Etolians, Acarnanians, and some other nations, subsisted by piracy; and, in the early ages of Greece, it was the occupation of all who dwelt upon the seacoast. The romance of Theagenes and Chariclea has supplied the materials for romance to many later writers, not only among the Greeks, but among the moderns in Western Europe. It was the model of those heroic fictions which, through the writings of Gomberville and Scuderi, became, for a considerable period, so popular in France. The Italians have also availed themselves of the incidents that occur in the work of Heliodorus. The circumstances of the birth and early life of Clorinda, in the twelfth canto of Tasso's Jerusalem, are taken, with hardly any variation, from the story of the infancy of Chariclea. This fiction has likewise been imitated in the Pastor Fido of Guarini, and the Astrea of D'Urfe. There are many French tragedies founded upon this conceit. View of Damascus. Damascus SYRIA, at the present day, is a province of Asiatic Turkey, and embraces what was anciently called Syria, with Phoenicia and Palestine. Including these, its extent is about seventy thousand square miles, and its population nearly two millions. It is an isthmus, between the Mediterranean, which stretches two thousand miles to the west, and the Desert of Arabia, which extends six hundred miles to the east. It is this peculiar position, as the gateway between the nations of the East and West, that has involved it in the ebb and flow of revolutions, for ages. The Greeks extended the boundaries of Syria, also, to the adjoining territories of Palestine and Phoenicia. But the Jews always regarded these three countries as distinct from each other. Confining ourselves to Syria proper, we may describe it as bounded on the west by the Mediterranean Sea, on the north by Mount Amanus, on the south by Arabia, and on the east by the Euphrates. The chief divisions, in ancient times, were three 1. Syria Proper; 2. Cole-Syria, or Hollow Syria, so called from being situated in a sort of valley among the mountains of Libanus; and, 3. Comagene, in the north. Palmyra, in the desert, was included in the boundaries of Syria; but of this famous city we shall give a distinct history. The principal mountains of Syria were Amanus, now Al Lucan; Casjus, now Cas; Libanus, and Anti-Libanus, called Mount Lebanon in Scripture. The ual snow. The chief rivers are the Euphrates, Orontes, and Leontes, all of which have a part of their course in Syria. The small river Eleutherus was anciently said to be haunted by a dragon, whose enormous jaws could receive a mounted horseman. The Sabbatum was reputed to cease flowing on the Sabbath; and the Adonis, tinged with reddish sand in the rainy season, was believed to flow with blood on the anniversary of the death of Adonis, who was killed by a wild boar on its banks. The palm, the plane-tree, and the cypress, are among latter has been described as being capped with perpet- the forest trees. Grapes are abundant; the various kinds of grains are produced, and millet, which is so extensively used in Asia and Africa, on account of the facility with which it is cultivated, is a common grain. The climate is similar to that of Palestine. Syria has the animals common to this portion of Asia, and a few which are regarded as specially belonging to it. The Syrian goat is a very elegant species, remarkable for the length of its hair and its pendulous ears. The hair has been a valued article of commerce for centuries. The wolf, jackal, and fox, are found in the mountains. The chief city of ancient Syria was Damascus, believed by the people to be the original seat of paradise. Antioch was long the capital, and renowned for its beauty and splendor. It is now reduced to insignificance. Near Antioch was the celebrated grove of Daphne, where Venus was worshipped with licentious rites. Hieropolis was noted for its temple of Venus, which was so rich that, when plundered by the Roman general Crassus, he was occupied several days in weighing the spoils. Emesa had a temple of the sun, whose priest, Heliogabalus, was made emperor of Rome at the age of fourteen. Tadmor, in the desert, or Palmyra, and Heliopolis, or Balbec, will be hereafter noticed. The most ancient inhabitants of Syria are supposed to have been the Aramites, or the descendants of Aram, the youngest son of Shem. Some of the posterity, also, of Hamath, one of the sons of Canaan, dwelt here at a very remote period. In the early Scripture times, Syria appears to have been divided into small states or kingdoms, as Damascus, Hamath, Lobah, and Geshur. At what period this country was first settled we cannot discover; but it is reasonable to suppose that it was one of the earliest inhabited regions in the world. Traditions are still extant among the modern Syrians, purporting that their country is the oldest upon the face of the globe. The first historical knowledge which we gain of Syria shows that the people were governed by heads of families, bearing the name of kings, this title being given by the ancient writers to every ruler, or leader, or chief magistrate, of a community. This was the case in the time of King Saul, (1095 B. C.,) as appears from the account that the kings of Zobah and Mesopotamia, then included under the name of Syria, were These summoned to attend Benhadad in his wars. kings, as they were styled, amounted to thirty-two. In the reign of David, however, we find that Damascus had no such chief, but that the affairs of the community were managed by the people themselves. Subsequently, a monarchical government was established in Damascus. Zobah was, perhaps, the most ancient of the Syrian kingdoms. That of Damascus rose upon the ruins of it, after Saul, king of Israel, had vanquished the kings of Zobah. The Syrians of Damascus became involved in hostilities with King David, who defeated them in a great battle, and captured Damascus, Belah, and Berothai. Toward the close of Solomon's reign, Rezin, who had been originally a slave, threw off the Israelitish yoke, and founded the kingdom of Damascus. The revolution by which the Hebrew nation was divided into the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah, and which took place shortly after this event, was probably the reason why the Syrians were enabled to maintain their independence. Benhadad I. made war against the Israelites, and his son, Benhadad II., the most powerful of the successors of Rezin, continued it. He is represented as having thirty-two vassal kings in his army during the reigns of Ahab and Jehoram. He was put to death in a treacherous manner (884 B. C.) by Hazael, one of his servants, who usurped the vacant throne. Benhadad adorned Damascus with fine buildings, and did much for the glory of his kingdom. Hazael was a warlike and successful ruler. He gained several important victories over the armies of Israel and Judah, compelling the kings of both those nations to resign important territories, and pay him tribute. He also made himself master of Elath, on the Red Sea, and greatly increased the commercial prosperity of his dominions. After his death, he was worshipped by the Syrians as a god. Benhadad III. had none of the talent or energy of his father. He was three times defeated by the Israelites, and lost all the provinces which his father had taken from them. Either in his time, or shortly after, the Syrians became tributary to Jeroboam, king of Israel. They appear, however, to have regained their independence amid the disorders which arose in Israel on the death of Jeroboam. The last of the ancient kings of Syria was Rezin. He entered into an alliance |