The Phœnicians.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 914, 6 September 1889, Page 8

The Phœnicians.

Canon Rawlinson h. 13 contributed to th series which calls itself ‘The Story of the Nations,’ an excellent and vivacious account of the people who formed their settlements on the coast of that part of Canaan which the Greeks named Phoenicia, land of the palms and the purple. Fourteen centuries ago, they practically faded out, being lost in the immensity of the Roman power, which, after trampling down their great offspring, Carthage, Bwallowedup and destroyed the chain of mighty cities which fringed the blue sea from Carmel to Mount Caßiiis, near the mouth of the Orontes. So long since they ceased to. be. Yet the trai of their unique exploits in the ancient world stretches far back into the remotest recesses of antiquity, the earliest glimmer in the obscurity beginning some three thousand years ago, and their active life lasting nearly half that time. They appear to have migrated westward from tbe Lower Euphrates and the Persian Gulf, bringing with them the rudiments of knowledge acquired by the Se) itio dwellers in that region, driven perhaps by pressure, seeking, it may be, facilities for the exercise of their genius in commerce and manufactures. How and when they reached the Mediterranean, is matter for conjecture ; but history infers that they were established and prosperous in their maritime cities before the Israelites quitted of Tyre’ is mentioned in the Book of Joshua, also as ‘ Tsor ’ on the early Egyptian monuments, and the ‘Sidonians,’ who ‘ dwelt quiet, careless and secure,’ are referred to more than once in Judges. Sidoh, indeed, preceded Tyre, being apparently the eldest seat of the migration ; and as the Phoenicians flourished exceedingly in the days of David and Solomon, it i? evident that centuries must have elapsed before they could have attained such.a height of renown as sailors, traffickers, and workers. Much time was required to build those walled cities, create fleets of merchant galleys, explore the adjacent coasts, establish trade by land and sea, and found tbe factories which produced beautifully dyed textile fabrics and marvels in metallurgy. Here, then, were these asbouishiug people, occupying the edges of a strip of coast some two hundred miles long, and nowhere more than five-and-thirty miles broad ; living in towns built on islands, headlands, or the low-lying shore, —Tyre, Sidon, Byblus, Aradus, Acre, anciently Akko. Spurs of Lebanon were thrust westward into the sea, and their rocky masses cut off the cities from each other; but the real home of the Phoenician was on the margin of the waters and on the waters themselves ; the fertile vale 3 and plains and ‘ cedared Lebanon ’ were oniy adjuncts to the maritime strongholds. Their inhabitants were traders aud artificers, not conquerors, but for centuries, unmolested, they held and made the most of their narrow realm. From this insignificant seat, they set foifch, first in open boats, and then in gafleys, using sails and oars, and doubling tho banks of rowers, until they had visited the islands and shores of the eastern Mediterranean, and had sot up factories or markets for the produce in which they traded. Over land, as well as oversea, their iudefatigable merchants carried their wares, seeking and finding business eastward as far as Armenia and the Persian Gulf ; and by sea, southward to Egypt and westward to the Isles of Greece, even to the mouth of the Dardanelles. Mineral deposits attracted them, and they turned mountains topsyfcurvey in their search for ores ; but they disdained nothing likely to yield a profit from its richness or rarity, which Asia and Africa could supply. They traded also, as everyone did, ‘in the persons of men,’ and combined with mercantile adventures tie most ancient practice of the pirate; but their main dealings were in commodities honestly come by, fairly obtained by hard work and sound judgement. Always they bore with them their cruel and sensual religion, for they were possessed of faith, being a remarkable compound of keen trader and fiery religious enthusiast, building ever a temple to their strange gods when they made a settlement, and even drawing others over to their horrid worship. It was the founding of Utica, and afterwards of Carthage, which brought the offshoots of Tyro into doss relations with Sicily, and later with Spain and Cornwall, and the Atlantic shores of northern Africa. These African Phoenicians, who alone :Of their people entered the lists as conquerors, fought to preserve their trade an I power at sea ; but aa their story does not come within the scope of Canon Rawlinson’s excellent book we touch on it no further. . Perhaps the building of .the temple conveys the best idea of the pitch to which the Tyrians had carried the constructive arts. Hiram, the King, sent a namesake ta work for Salomon. He was a ‘ wonderfully accomplished artist ’ of mixed breed, the son of a Phoenician father and a Hebrew mother. He is described as ‘a carver in wood, a man skilled in tho construction of delicate textile fabrics, a caster of bvonzes on the largest scale, and familiar with metallurgy in alt its various branches.’ Canon Rawlinson thinks he was the architect as well as builder ; and that, though modelled in some respects on the Tabernacle, the Temple ‘ must be re. garded as essentially a Phoenician building, at once designed by Phmnicians, and the work of Phceuieian hands.’ Recent explorations have revealed tho enormous sub-struc-tures of the edifice, a mass of squared stones, varying from three to six feet in height, the longest measuring nearly forty feet, and estimated to weigh one hundred tons. '-Lm.v blocks are from halt to two-thirds of. this weight, and the fact that they are there now is a concrete testimony to the engineer-

ing power of the TyriaDS. ‘The massiveness of their work is fully on a par with that of the Egyptian pyramid-Kings,’ and the cutting and fitting are nearly equal. So in easting,—the grbaf; bowl ot laver* supported by twelvfeqxeri, 47ft. iii dirfeuihferfengfy atlfl holding seventeen thousand galloiis; fid r exceeded in size any similar work of the Greeks, and would severely tax the ingenuity of modern metallurgists to construct in one piece.’ The works accomplished at Jerusalem had been already preceded by similar productions in Tyre ; but these have passed away, together with other triumphs in art at which we can only guesß, the few remaining belonging to a much later period. Take an example of ingenuity from Aradus, built on a rocky island off the eoast. It was dope*.dent on rain for water* and on * a Supmarine spring which rose in the mitl-ohatinel of the strait from a depth of fifty dibits; This curious fountain was carefully cdvfsrfid with a mass of lead, let down from stbovd, which excluded the sea, while it allowed the fresh water to rise through a leathern tube attached to the lead, which conducted it to a vessel that floated on the surface.’ We can well imagfne that like inventiveness was applied to the building of ships, the improvement of harbours, the construction of houses, temples, and walls by an essentially practical people. Then, if they did not invent they vastly improved the alphabet, and, in course of business, gave it to the nat ons of tho WestJ These nations, says our author, had no choice but to take the gift for the only people who navigated the Mediterranean ‘alone had the power of introducing into the West the civilisation and the arts of the Ea«t.’ That seems to be the sole surviving contribution of their genius to the world. Mommsen remarks that ‘they lacked the instinct of political life and observes that with half the power they possessed, ■ Hellenic cities achieved their independence. Phcanicia, however, had none of the geographical advantages of Hellas. 18 was hardly a country ; having no land side at all, and lying between very powerful States, it was ever between hammer and anvil. Assyria, bent on Egyptian conquest, was bound in prudence to reduce the intervening region. Tue same necessity fell upon Persia; and Alexander showed how thoroughly he understood the conditions of soiid warfare, when, before advancing eastward, he crushed the maritime cities of Phosnicia, and their ally or .. master as it happened, Egypt. Syria and Palestine can never be independent so long as great Empires exist to the east, north, and south. As it was in ancient days, so it is now, and even Egypt itself could not be held securely against'a powerful European State which should be able to command tho countries from the Black Sea to the southern edge of Palestine. The Greeks were not between great Powers, nor on the road to a rival Empire. They may have been, probably were, far superior as fighting folk to Phoenicians, yet the Romans overcame them, although their geographical situation was much better than that of tho dwellers under Lebanon. That the Phoenicians were highspirited, brave, and enduring, fcbe bitter sieges of Tyre alone suffice to prove ; hut apart from them, the myriads of daring voyages on all seas which they carried out for a thousand years with such comparatively poor means, are indisputable testimonies to their enterprise, hardihood, and tenacity. Carthage alone produced a fighting body of tho very first order, and a general even now unsurpassed; but Carthage was out of reach until its marine was destroyed, and the best foot-soldiers of Hannibal were Iberians. That he was not sustained in his grand enterprise, is a proof that the political instinct was wanting, and that mere civio trading communities, without territory, and without the backing of kindred populations, have not the virtues needed to sustain prolonged warfare. If we allow that Carthage had a chance of success in its contest with Rome, it must be admitted that Phoenicia had none when it stood in-the way of Assyria, Persia, and Alexander. Whatever place may be assigned them among the memorable peoples, there is such an abounding interest in their unique-career, that they deserve a large niche in history, even if it does afford the strongest proof of all that * the development of national energies in antiquity was of a one-sided character.’ Well did they toil upon the side their- natural genius drove them. Even Mommsen admits that they direoted * all the resources of courage, acuteness, and enthusiasm to the full development of commerce and its attendant arts of navigation,, manufacturing, and colonisation that ‘ .Phoenician mariners supplied every nation with whatever it needed or was likely to purchase,’ aud roamed everywhere. The seafaring people, a band of whose sons circumnavigated Africa, and who regularly traded with Britain, must have had great qualities of a practical kind. Canon Raw* liuson ha 3 compressed into a few hundred pages au account of their home, their institutions, their fearful religion, their accomplishments, their daring, and their long career ; and bis careful, as well as eloquent, and brilliant volume, deserves to be widely read.—The Spectator.