r built by the Zidonians. For as 9 Strabo noteth, Homer, speaking of Zidon, neglecteth the memory of Tyre, because it was but a member of Zidon, and a city subject to the kings thereof; though it be true, that in after-times it contended with Zidon for primacy, and became far more renowned, opulent, and strong. From Zidon had Solomon and Zorobabel their principal workmen, both in timber and stone, for the building of the temple. For as it flourished in all sorts of learning, so did it in all other mechanical arts and trades; the prophet Zachary calling them the wise Zidonians The city was, both by nature and art, exceeding strong, having a castle or citadel on the north side, standing upon an unaccessible rock, and compassed by the sea; which, after the citizens became Christians, was held and defended by the knights of the Dutch order: and another castle it hath on the south side, by the port of Egypt, which the Templars guarded. It also sent many other colonies, besides that of Tyre, into places remote; as unto Thebes and Sephyra, cities of Boeotia in Greece. S Strabo and Pliny give the Zidonians the invention of t glass, which they used to make of those sands which are taken out of the river Belus, falling into the Mediterranean sea, near Ptolomais or Acon; and from whence the Venetians fetch the matter of those clear glasses which they make at Murana; of which St. Jerome and Pliny: Zidon insignis artifex vitri, Zidon vitrariis officinis nobilis; "Zidon a "famous glass-maker, or a skilful worker in glass-houses." They were in religion idolaters, (as the rest of the Canaanites,) worshippers of Baal and "Astaroth; which idols, Strab. 1. 16. r Zach. ix. 2. • Plin. 1. 5. c. 9. It seems that even in Joshua's time they practised glass-making; whence Junius for misbrephoth maiim, which, ad verbum, is as much as combustiones aquarum, reads fornaces vitrarias, Josh. xi. 8. as it seems, because these furnaces were where there was store of water, either for the moving of the bellows by the force of the water, or for other necessary uses. But there are others that take them for salt-pits, and others again for hot-baths. u The form of Astoreth (or Astarte) seemeth to have been a sheep; for, Deut. vii. 13. the word in the plural number signifieth sheep; and this may confirm Augustine's opinion, that Astarte was Juno; for the form of her husband, Jupiter Hammon, was a ram. RALEGH, HIST. WORLD. VOL. II. : though common to the other of the issue of Canaan, (as Pineda gathers out of 1 Sam. xxxi. 10. and Judges x. 6.) yet especially and peculiarly were accounted the gods of the Zidonians; as appears 1 Kings xi. 5. in the story of Solomon's idolatry, where Astaroth is called the god of the Zidonians; and 1 Kings xvi. 33. in the story of Achab, the chief worshipper of Baal, where it is said, that he, marrying Jezabel, the daughter of the king of the Zidonians, worshipped their Baal. Divers Baals, and divers Astaroths, in their idolatries they acknowledged, as it appears by the plural names of Baalim and Astaroth, 1 Sam. xii. 10. and elsewhere for even the name Astaroth, as I am informed by a skilful Hebrician, is plural; the singular being Astoreth: whence, Judges ii. 13, the Septuagint read λárpevσav Taïs άoтápтais; "they worshipped the Astartes." The occasion ἀστάρταις; of this their multiplying of their Baals and Astoreths may be diversely understood; either in respect of the diversity of the forms of the images, or of the worship in divers places, or of the stories depending upon them, which (aś fables use to be) were doubtless in divers cities diverse. Augustine, Quæst. 16. in Judg. thinks Baal and Astarte to be Jupiter and Juno. For the Carthaginians (which were Tyrians) call Juno by some such name as Astarte. Tull. 1. 3. de Nat. Deorum, making divers goddesses of the name of Venus, expounds the fourth to be Astarte; whom he makes to be born of Tyrus and Syria, and to have been the wife of Adonis. As also Macrob. 2. Saturn. cap. 21. says, that Adonis was with great veneration commonly worshipped of the Assyrians. And Jerome, upon Ezekiel viii. 44. notes, that Thammuz (whom there the idolatrous women are noted to bewail) is the name of Adonis among the Syrians. So that it may seem, that in the worship of Astarte, or Venus, they did bewail her husband Adonis: as also the Grecians did in their songs of Adonis, "Mourn for Adonis the fair, dead "is Adonis the fair!" Howbeit, others in that place of Ezekiel, not without good probability, expound the mourning for Thammuz to be the mourning for Osiris, in the * Κλαίετε καλὸν Αδωνιν. sacrifices of Isis; whose loss of her husband Osiris was as famous, in the Egyptian idolatry, as, with the Grecians, Venus's loss of Adonis. And to this agreeth that which Plutarch hath, de Iside et Osiride; that Osiris with the Egyptians is called Ammuz; which word may seem to be the same with Ezekiel's Thammuz. But howsoever these Zidonians were thus anciently fostered with the milk of idolatry, yet they were more apt to receive the doctrine and gospel of Christ, after his ascension, than the Jews, who had been taught by Moses and the prophets so many years; whereof our Saviour, in Matthew and Luke; y Woe be to thee, Chorazin! &c. for if the great works, which were done in thee, had been done in Tyrus and Zidon, they had repented long agone, &c. But I say unto you, It shall be easier for Tyrus and Zidon at the day of judgment, than for you. It received a Christian bishop with the first, who was afterwards of the diocese of Tyre. But in the year of our redemption 636, it fell into the hands of the Saracens, and continued in their possession till Baldwinus the First, then king of Jerusalem, in the year 1111. by the help of the Danes and Norways, who came with a fleet to visit the Holy Land, and took port at 2 Joppa, it was again recovered, the commandment thereof being given to Eustace Gremer, a nobleman of that country. And again, in the year 1250, it was re-edified and strengthened by Lodowick, the French king, while he spent four years in the war of the Holy Land. Lastly, in the year 1289, it was reconquered by the Saracens; and is now in possession of the Turk, and hath the name of Zai. a §. 3. Of Sarepta, with a brief history of Tyre in the same coast. SAREPTA, or, after the Hebrew, Sarphath, is the next city southward from Zidon, between it and the river called Naar, or Fons hortorum Libani, (of which more hereafter,) y Matth. xi. 21, 22. • Niger Postellus. standing in the way towards Tyre, a city very famous for the excellent wine growing near it: of which Sidonius; Vina mihi non sunt Gazetica, Chia, Falerna, Quæque Sareptano palmite missa bibas. I have no wine of Gaza, nor Falerna wine, This city had also a bishop of the diocese of Tyre, after it came to the Saracens and Turks, as the rest, and is now called Saphet, saith Postellus. Not far from Sarepta was situate that sometime famous city of Tyre, whose fleets of ships commanded and gave the law over all the Mediterranean sea and the borders thereof; during which time of greatness and power the Tyrians erected Utica, Leptis, and Carthage in Africa; of which Virgil: b Urbs antiqua fuit Tyrii tenuere coloni, Carthago. And Carthage was therefore called © Punica quasi Phœnicum, a colony of the Phoenicians. In Spain they founded Gades, now Cadiz; in Italy, Nola; in Asia the Less, Dromos Achillis; which city the d scholiast of Apollonius placeth near the river Phyllis in Bithynia. It had anciently the name of Zor, or Tzor, and so it is written in Joshua xix. taking name from the situation, because built on a high rock, sharp at one end. The Latins, as it seems, knew it by the name of Sarra; for e Virgil calleth the purple of Tyre ostrum Sarranum, by which name Juvenal and Silius remember it. The Zidonians built it upon a high hill, whereof many ruins remain to this day, the place being still known by the name of the ancient Tyre: and because it was a colony of the Zidonians, the prophet Isaiah xxiii. calleth it the daughter of Zidon; which Trogus also confirmeth, though Berosus, by affinity of name, makes Thiras, the son of Japhet, to be the parent thereof; and though no doubt it was very ancient, (for so much the prophet Isaiah xxiii. also witnesseth, Is not this your glorious city, whose antiquity is of ancient days?) yet, that Thiras, the son of Japhet, set himself in the bosom of the CanaanMarcellin. 1. 22. • Gellius, 1. 4. c. 6. ↳ Virgil. 1. 1. Plin. 1. 5. c. 19. ites who built Zidon, and peopled all that region, I see nothing to persuade me. But that new Tyre, in after-times so renowned, seemeth to be the work of Agenor; and of this opinion was f Curtius: and Josephus and Eusebius make this city elder than Solomon's temple 240 years; Cedrenus 361, who also addeth that Tyrus, the wife of Agenor, gave it her name: but of Agenor I will speak more at large in the story of their kings. For strength, and for the commodity of the harbour, and the better to receive trade from all places, it was in this new erection founded in an island 700 paces from the continent; and therefore 8 Ezekiel placeth it in the midst of the sea, as some read; or as others, in the innermost part of the sea; whence he calleth it, situate at the entry of the sea; as also the same prophet calleth it, the mart of the people for many isles; and Isaiah xxiii. 3. a mart of the nations. And so proud, wealthy, and magnificent was this city, as the prophet Isaiah, xxxiv. 12. calleth the merchants thereof princes, and their chapmen the nobles of the world. It excelled both in learning and in manufacture, especially in the making and dyeing of purple and scarlet cloth; which, saith Julius Pollux, was first found out by Hercules's dog, who passing along the sea-coast, and eating of the fish conchilis, or purpura, the hair of his lips became of that colour. It worshipped the same idols that Zidon did, saving that Hercules became their patron in after-times. For Alexander Macedon, when the Tyrians presented him with a crown of gold and other gifts, desiring to remain his friends and allies, answered them, that he had vowed a sacrifice to Hercules, the defender of their city and the ancestor of the Macedonian kings, and must therefore enter it. Whereupon they sent him word, that Hercules's temple was in the mountain of old Tyre, where he might perform that ceremony. But this availed not; for Alexander was not so superstitious as ambitious; he desired to enter the f Justin. 1. 18. Curt. 1. 4. Euseb. in 8 Ezek. xxviij. 2. and xxvii. 3. Chron.Joseph.Ant.1.8.c.2.Cedren.p.17. |