sway of the _Seleucidæ_ at Antioch, and, for a time, of the Egyptian _Ptolemies_. Both Tyre and Sidon were rebuilt, and flourished anew. It is probably to the third century B.C. that we should assign the native Sidonian dynasty which included the Kings _Eshmunazar I., Sedek-yaton, Tabnit, Bodashtart_, and _Eshmunazar II._, whose names are known to us from inscriptions. In the time of the last-named king, the cities Dor and Joppa, with the plain of Sharon, belonged to Sidon. CARTHAGINIAN HISTORY.--The most prominent of all the Phoenician settlements was Carthage. It had remarkable advantages of situation. Its harbor was sufficient for the anchorage of the largest vessels, and it had a fertile territory around it. These circumstances, in conjunction with the energy of its inhabitants, placed it at the head of the Phoenician colonies. In Carthage, there was no middle class. There were the rich landholders and merchants, and the common people. The government was practically an oligarchy. There were two kings or judges (_Shofetes_), with little power, and a _council_ or _senate_; possibly a second council also. But the senate and magistrates were subordinate to an aristocratic body, the _hundred judges_. The bulk of the citizens had little more than a nominal influence in public affairs. ASCENDENCY OF CARTHAGE.-When the Greeks (about 600 B.C.) spread their colonies, the rivals of the Phoenician settlements, in the west of the Mediterranean, Carthage was moved to deviate from the policy of the parent cities, and to make herself the champion, protector, and mistress of the Phoenician dependencies in all that region. Thus she became the head of a North-African empire, which asserted its supremacy against its Greek adversaries in Sicily and Spain, as well as in Lybia. When Tyre was subjugated by Persia, Carthage was strengthened by the immigration of many of the best Tyrian families. As the Tyrian strength waned, the Carthaginian power increased. _Syracuse_, in Sicily, became the first Greek naval power, and the foremost antagonist of the Carthaginian dominion. In 480 B.C., Carthage made war upon the Greek cities in Sicily. The contest was renewed from time to time. In the conflicts between 439-409 B.C., she confirmed her sway over the western half of the island. In later conflicts (317-275 B.C.), in which _Agathocles_, tyrant of Syracuse, was a noted leader of the Greeks, and, after his death, _Pyrrhus_, king of Epirus, was their ally, Carthage alternately lost and regained her Sicilian cities. But the result of the war was to establish her maritime ascendency. LITERATURE.--Works mentioned on pp. 16, 42: Pietschmann, _Geschichte der Phönizier_ (1889); Rawlinson, _History of Phoenicia_ (1889); E. Meycr, Art. _Phoenicia_ in the _Encycl. Bibl._; Perrot & Chipiez, _History of Art in Phoenicia and Cyprus_, 2 vols.; Renan, _Mission de Phenicie_ (1874); Meltzer, _Geschichte der Karthager_; F. W. Newman's _Defense of Carthage_.