town, which being denied, he, as one whom no peril could fear, nor labour weary, gathered together as many ships as he could, and brought from Libanus so great a number of cedars, and so many weighty stones from the old city of Tyre adjoining, as notwithstanding that his materials were often washed away with the strength of the sea and the tides, yet he never rested, till he had made a foot passage from the continent to the island: and having once approached their walls, he overtopped them with turrets of wood, and other frames; from whence (having filled the body of force with the violent moving spirit of resolution) he became lord thereof, putting all to the sword that resisted; after which, he caused 2000 more to be hung up in a rank all along the sea-shore; which execution in cold blood he performed (as some authors affirm) upon the issues of those slaves which had formerly slain all their masters, taking their wives, children, riches, and power of government to themselves. This victory of Alexander over the Tyrians h Josephus remembereth; and how Sanaballat revolted from Darius, and came to Alexander with 8000 soldiers; who was the last satrapa, or provincial governor, which Darius seated in Samaria; the same who, having married his daughter to Manasseh, brother to Jaddus the high priest of Jerusalem, obtained of Alexander that a temple might be built on the mountain Garizim, over Samaria; that the forces of the Jews being divided, Alexander might the better hold them in obedience. The honour of which priesthood he bestowed on his son-in-law Manasseh, whom the Jews oppugned, for that he had married out of their tribes, and with a Gentile: but while Alexander besieged Gaza, Sanaballat, whom i Guil. Tyrius calleth Sanabula, died. Long before this desolation of Tyre, by the cruelty of Alexander, it was attempted by Salmanassar the Assyrian king, when the growing pride of the Assyrians, after that they had conquered the ten tribes, with the rest of Syria, became envious of the beauty, riches, and power of that city. h Joseph. Ant. Jud. I. 11. c. 8. i De Bell. Sac. 1. 13. c. 4. He besieged it both on the land side, and with threescore ships of war held the port, to the end that neither any victuals nor any supply of men might enter it; but, the Tyrians with twelve sail scattered that fleet, and took five hundred prisoners of the Assyrians: notwithstanding, the Assyrian continued his resolution, and lay before it by his lieutenants five years, but with ill success. And this siege Menander Ephesius, cited by Josephus, made report of in his Chronicles, as he found the story among the annals of the Tyrians, (which the said Menander converted into Greek,) adding, that Elulæus, whom Tyrius calleth Helisæus, was then king of Tyre, having governed the same six and twenty years. Soon after this repulse of Salmanassar, and about 200 years before the victory of Alexander, Nabuchodonosor, at such time as he destroyed Jerusalem with the temple, came before this city; who indeed gave to Alexander the example of that despairful work of joining it to the continent. For Nabuchodonosor had formerly done it; though by the diligence of the citizens, and the strength of the sea, the same causey and passage was again broken down and demolished. Against Nabuchodonosor for many years the Tyrians defended themselves; for so long did these Babylonians continue before it, as every head was made bald, and every shoulder made bare, saith Ezekiel, xxix. 18. who, with the prophet Isaiah, chap. xxiii. &c. had manifestly foretold the destruction of this proud place. In the end, and after thirteen years siege or more, the Tyrians, despoiled of all their hopes, and remembering over-late the predictions and threatenings of God's prophets, having prepared a convenient number of ships, abandoned their city, transporting with themselves the ablest of all that remained, and with their wives, children, and portable riches, sailed thence into Cyprus, Carthage, and other maritimate cities of their tributaries or confederates; so as the Babylonians finding nothing therein, either to satisfy so many labours and perils, or any k Joseph. Ant. 1. 9. c. 14. Et cont. Ap. 1. Guil. Tyrius, de Bell. Sac. 13. 4. Joseph. Ant. 1. 9. c. 15. person upon whom to avenge themselves for the loss of so many bodies in that war, it pleased God, in recompense thereof, (who strengthened this resolution, as in a work of his own,) to make Nabuchodonosor victorious over the 1 Egyptians, and gave him that kingdom, and the spoil thereof, as it were in wages for his army. Whereupon St. Jerome noteth, that God leaveth not the good deeds of the heathen unrewarded; who though they cannot hope by any laudable worldly action to attain unto that eternal happiness reserved for his servants and saints, yet such is the boundless goodness of God, as he often repayeth them with many worldly gifts and temporal blessings. Now of this enterprise of Nabuchodonosor against Tyre profane historians have not been silent. For both Diocles and Philostratus, (as m Josephus citeth them,) the one in his second book, the other in his Phoenician histories, remember it. After these two great vastations by the kings of Babylon and Macedon, this city of Tyre repaired and recovered itself again, and continued in great glory about 300 years, even to the coming of our Saviour Christ, and after him flourished in the Christian faith near 600 years; the archbishop whereof gave place to none but to the patriarch of Jerusalem only, who within his own diocese had fourteen great cities, with their bishops and suffragans, namely, n Caipha, otherwise Porphyria, Acon or Ptolomais, Sarepta, Zidon, Cæsarea Philippi, Berytus, Byblus, Botrys, Tripolis, Orthosia, Archis, Aradus, Antaradus, or Tortosa, and Maraclea. But in the year 636, it was, with the rest of that beautiful region of Phoenicia and Palestina, subjected to the cruel and faithless Saracen; under the burden and yoke of whose tyranny it suffered with the other Palestine cities 488 years. • In the year 1112, it was attempted by Baldwin king of Jerusalem, but in vain; yet in the year 1124, by Guaremonde, patriarch of Jerusalem, vicegerent to Baldwin II. with the assistance of the Venetians, and their fleet of gal 1 Ezek. xxix. 19. M Joseph. Ant. 1. 10. c. 13. n Guil. Tyr. Bell. Sac. leys, it was again recovered, and subjected to the kings of Jerusalem, and so it remained 165 years. Finally, in the year 1189, Saladine, having first taken Jerusalem, removed his whole army, and sat down before Tyre, drawing his fleet of ships and galleys from Alexandria into the port, this city as then only remaining in the Chris tian power. The citizens finding themselves reduced into great famine, and many other miseries, they at once, with certain rafters of timber, fired, burnt, and brake the Saracens' fleet, and, sallying out resolvedly upon his army, slew so great numbers of them, and followed their victory with such fury, as that the Saracens, forsaking their trenches and tents, removed in great disorder and dishonour. Two years after which victory, the body of that famous Frederick Barbarossa (who, by the lamentable accident of following the Christians' enemies over a river unfordable, perished by the weight of his armour therein) was brought and interred in the cathedral church of Tyre, near unto that glorious sepulchre of Origen, garnished and graven with gilt pillars of marble, 940 years before therein buried; but in the year 1289, the Saracens again attempted it and carried it, and it now remaineth subject to the Turks. §. 4. Of Ptolomais, or Acon. THE third city along the coast of the sea, which the Asherites could not obtain on the south bound of Asher, was Acho, which was the ancient name thereof, after Jerome; though other good authors affirm that it took name from Acon, the brother of Ptolomy. P Pliny calleth it Ace, and otherwise the colony of Claudius. It had also the name of Coth, or Cod; and by Zieglerus it is called Hactipos. But, lastly, it was entitled Ptolomais, after the name of one of the Egyptian Ptolomies; which city also, as it is 1 Macc. xi. another of the 9 Ptolomies infideliously wrested from his son-in-law Alexander, which called himself the son of Antiochus Epiphanes, the same Alexander having marPlin. lib. 5. c. 19. in descript. ter. sanct. 9 Ptolomæus Philometer. ried Cleopatra, daughter of the said Ptolomy, not long before. Therein also was Jonathan Maccabæus treacherously surprised and slain, as it is 1 Macc. xii. 48. by the perfidiousness of n Tryphon, whom soon after Antiochus pursued, as it is in the story ensuing; and by like reason, about the same time, was the aforesaid Alexander in the war against Demetrius, one of the sons of Antiochus the Great with whom Ptolomy joined, overthrown and treacherously murdered by Zabdiel the Arabian, to whom he fled for succour; and his head presented unto his father-in-law Ptolomy, who enjoyed not the glory of his victory and treason above three days, for o God struck him by death. For the beauty and strength of this city, this Alexander made it his regal seat, two parts of the same being environed by the sea, and the port of safety and capacity not inferior to any other in all that tract. This city is distant from Jerusalem some thirty-four miles; four miles to the north from the mountain Carmel, and as much to the south from Castrum Lamberti; from Tyre, P Antoninus maketh it thirty-two Italian miles. In the midst of the city there was a tower of great strength, sometime the temple of Bel-zebub, and therefore called the castle of flies; on the top whereof there was maintained a perpetual light, like unto that called 9 Pharus in Egypt, to give comfort in the night to those ships which came near and sought that part. It had in it a bishop's seat of the diocese of Tyre, after it became Christian; but in the year 636, (a fatal year to the Christians in those parts,) it was forced and taken by Haomarus the Saracen. In the year 1104, it was regained by r Baldwin I. by the help of the galleys of Genoa, to whom a third of the revenue was given in recompense. Again, in the year of our Lord God 1187, Saladine, king of Egypt and Syria, became lord thereof. In the year of Christ 1191, by Richard king of England, and Philip king of France, it was repossessed and redelivered to the Christians. Lastly, in the n 1 Mac. i. 10. • 1 Mac. xi. 18. P Ant. Itin. 1 Herrold. G. Tyr. Bell. Sac. 1. 10. c. 28. Herrold. 1. 1. Bell. Sac. Tit. 7. et 1. 2. c. 2. et alibi. |