It may be taken for granted that one principal reason why the religious games or the political assemblies of the States were fixed upon to hold the fairs was that during these, _all hostilities were suspended_: and every person might go with his merchandise in safety to them, even through an enemy’s country. The priests, so far from regarding these fairs as a profanation of the religious ceremonies, encouraged them; and the priests of Jupiter, in particular, advanced large sums on interest to such merchants as had good credit, but had not sufficient money with them, _vide_ Stevenson’s “Historical Sketch of the Progress of Discovery, Navigation and Commerce,” vol. 18 of Kerr’s “Travels,” 1824. _Early Eastern Nations._—By reference to “The Books of the Prophets,” we are enabled to realize the importance of the fairs in the ancient commerce of the great city of Tyre (probably B.C. 597-74) “the crowning city whose merchants were princes, whose traffickers the honourable of the earth” (Isaiah xxiii. 8). Thus in Ezekiel xxvii.:— “12. Tarshish was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of all kinds of riches; with silver, iron, tin and lead, they traded in thy fairs.... “14. They of the house of Togarmah traded in thy fairs with horses and horsemen and mules.... “16. Syria was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of the wares of thy making: they occupied in thy fairs with emeralds, purple and broidered work, and fine linen and coral and agate.... “19. Dan also and Javan going to and fro occupied in thy fairs: bright iron, cassia, and calamus, were in thy market.... “22. The merchants of Sheba and Raamah, they were thy merchants: they occupied in thy fairs with chief of all spices, and with all precious stones and gold.... “27. Thy riches, and thy fairs, thy merchandise, thy mariners shall fall into the midst of the seas in the day of thy ruin.” The merchant traders mentioned here claim ancestry from families mentioned Genesis x. 3-7. The expression “they occupied” may be rendered “they inhabited.” In the same chapter, in alternate verses, there are many references to markets.