History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 8 (of 12)Maspero, G. (Gaston)
History
History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 8 (of 12)
Maspero, G. (Gaston)
Civilization, Ancient; Egypt -- History -- To 640 A.D.; History, Ancient; Middle East -- History
In 876 B.C. Assur-nazir-pal had crossed the Lebanon and skirted the
shores of the Mediterranean: Eth-baal, naturally compliant, had loaded
him with gifts, and by this opportune submission had preserved his
cities and country from the horrors of invasion.*
* The King of Tyre who sent gifts to Assur-nazir-pal is not
named in the Assyrian documents: our knowledge of Tyrian
chronology permits us with all probability to identify him
with Eth-baal.
Twenty years later Shalmaneser III. had returned to Syria, and had come
into conflict with Damascus. The northern Phoenicians formed a league
with Ben-hadad (Adadidri) to withstand him, and drew upon themselves the
penalty of their rashness; the Tynans, faithful to their usual policy,
preferred to submit voluntarily and purchase peace. Their conduct
showed the greater wisdom in that, after the death of Eth-baal, internal
troubles again broke out with renewed fierceness and with even more
disastrous results. His immediate successor was Balezor (854-846 B.C.),
followed by Mutton I. (845-821 B.C.), who flung himself at the feet of
Shalmaneser III., in 842 B.c., in the camp at Baalirasi, and renewed
his homage three years later, in 839 B.C. The legends concerning the
foundation of Carthage blend with our slight knowledge of his history.
They attribute to Mutton I. a daughter named Elissa, who was married
to her uncle Sicharbal, high priest of Melkarth, and a young son named
Pygmalion (820-774 B.c.). Sicharbal had been nominated by Mutton as
regent during the minority of Pygmalion, but he was overthrown by
the people, and some years later murdered by his ward. From that time
forward Elissa's one aim was to avenge the murder of her husband.
She formed a conspiracy which was joined by all the nobles, but being
betrayed and threatened with death, she seized a fleet which lay ready
to sail in the harbour, and embarking with all her adherents set sail
for Africa, landing in the district of Zeugitane, where the Sidonians
had already built Kambe. There she purchased a tract of land from
larbas, chief of the Liby-phoenicians, and built on the ruins of the
ancient factory a new town, Qart-hadshat, which the Greeks called
Carchedo and the Romans Carthage. The genius of Virgil has rendered
the name of Dido illustrious: but history fails to recognise in the
narratives which form the basis of his tale anything beyond a legendary
account fabricated after the actual origin (814-813 B.C.) of the great
Punic city had been forgotten. Thus weakened, Tyre could less than ever
think of opposing the ambitious designs of Assyria: Pygmalion took no
part in the rebellions of the petty Syrian kings against Samsi-ramman,
and in 803 B.C. he received his suzerain Ramman-nirari with the
accustomed gifts, when that king passed through Phoenicia before
attacking Damascus. Pygmalion died about 774 B.C., and the names of his
immediate successors are not known;* it may be supposed, however, that
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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