Evening star., 1941-06-17
Phoeniciu Again

Phoeniciu Again
Times without number the tides of
war have rolled over the narrow strip
of broken coast between the noun
tains of Lebanon and the Mediter-
ranean. British and Free French
troops, now moving through the
deserts and hills of Syria, are tread
ing the dust of paths which were
beaten by the feet of forgotten
armies in the morning of the world.
A millennium and a half before the
beginning Of the Christian era the
cities of Sidon and Tyre were the
emporiums of the East. The latter
particularly was a metropolis in the
modern meaning Of the term.
Ezekiel, who knew the place init
mately, addressed it in the words:
20 thou that dwellest at the entry
of the sea, which art the merchant
of the peoples unto many isles.
Thou, o Tyre, hast said, 7 am per-
feet in beauty"
Both towns originally were built
on islands. The Phoenicians were
the pioneer sailors in the history
of the human race. How strong
we're the defenses they built for their
principal centers of trade may be
estimated from the fact that the
walls rose a hundred feet above the
water. Tyre was besieged by Nebu-
chadnezzar, the King of Babylon, for
fourteen years in the sixth century
BIC, but the city soon recovered
from the damage sustained in that
experience. Ships Of Tyrian registry
were leased or lent to the Persians
for their campaigns against Greece.
In revenge Alexander the Great in
flicted a terrible punishment. Fol-
lowing his victory at Issus, he hurried
southwark to Egypt, demanding the
surrender of all the communities Of
the territory through wAich he de-
signed to pass.
Sidon capitulated to the con-
queror. The citizens of Tyre, allied
to Persia, refused. Alexander there
upon built a causeway from the shore
and erected towers and battering
rams at its further end. The Tyrians
prepared as best they could to re-
ceive him. What followed was one
of the classic battles of antiquity.
Many curious devices were made
use of to defeat the Greeks, such
as pots of burning naptha and
sulphur, and red-hot sand hurled
from catapults. Alexander next
widened the mole and rebuilt the
towers, but he saw that without
assistance of fleet success could not
be assured, since the Tyrians had
free access to the sea. From Sidon
he obtained eighty Phoenician ships
and twenty-four from Rhodes, NAL
lus, Soil, Lycia and Macedonia. Then
the King of Cyprus, hearing Of the
defeat of Darius at IssuS, joined
Alexander with two hundred and
twenty warships. The reduction of
Tyre was now but a matter Of time,
for if the assault from the mole
proved unsuccessful, starvation must
accomplish its work Alexander,
however, was impatient to complete
the siege before Darius could raise
another army, so he constructed
floating batteries upon which rams
were mounted, and forced his way
into the Egyptian and Sidonian
harbors, and scaled the city walls.
Thus after a siege of seven months,
the city was taken" The population
was slaughtered or sold into slavery.
But both the Phoenician towns
rose again, not once but on many
occasions. st. Paul was in Tyre on
his way from Ephesus to Jerusalem.
The Muslims wrecked the medieval
city after the fall of Acre in 1889.
Yet even today the site is not alto
gether abandoned.
Rudyard Kipling, however, needed
no apology for the lines of his
"Recessionap in which he warned:
Far-call'd our navies melt away
On dune and headland sinks the
fire
Lo, all our pomp Of yesterday
Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!
Judge of the Nations, spare us yet,
Lest we forget, lest we forget!