BOOKS.
THE PHCENICIANS.*
CANON RAWLINSON has contributed to the 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, swallowed up and destroyed the chain of mighty cities which fringed the blue sea from Carmel to Mount Casius, near the mouth of the Orontes. So long since they ceased to be. Yet the trail 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 the Lower Euphrates and the Persian Gulf, bringing with them the rudiments of knowledge acquired by the Semitic 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 Egypt ; for "the strong city 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. Sidon, indeed, preceded Tyre, being apparently the eldest seat of the migra- tion; and as the Phoenicians flourished exceedingly in the days of David and Solomon, it is 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 the factories which produced beautifully dyed textile fabrics and marvels in metallurgy. Here, then, were these astonishing 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 Phcenician was on the margin of the waters and on the waters them- selves ; the fertile plains and vales and " cedared Lebanon" were only adjuncts to the maritime strongholds. Their in- habitants were traders and artificers, not conquerors, but for centuries, unmolested, they held and made the most of their narrow realm. From this insignificant seat they put forth, first in open boats, and then in galleys, using sails and oars, and doubling the banks of rowers, until they had visited the islands and shores of the Eastern Mediterranean, and had set up factories or markets for the produce in which they traded. Over land, as well as over sea, their indefatigable 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 topsy-turvy 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 every one did, " in the persons of men," and combined with mercantile adventures the most ancient practice of the pirate ; but their main dealings were in com- modities honestly come by, fairly obtained by hard work and sound judgment. Always they bore with them their cruel and sensual religion, for they were possessed of faith, being a re- markable compound of keen trader and fiery religious enthu- siast, building ever a temple to their strange gods when they made a settlement, and even drawing others over to their
• Ph antis. By George Rawlinson, M.A. London : T. Fisher Unveil'.
horrid worship. It was the founding of Utica, and afterwards of Carthage, which brought the offshoots of Tyre into close relations with Sicily, and later with Spain and Cornwall, and the Atlantic shores of Northern Africa. These African Phmnicians, who alone of their people entered the lists as conquerors, fought to preserve their trade and power at sea ; but as 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 to work for Solomon. He was a " wonderfully accomplished artist" of mixed breed, the son of a Phcenician father and a Hebrew mother. He is described as " a carver in wood, a man skilled in the con- struction of delicate textile fabrics, a caster of bronzes on the largest scale, and familiar with metallurgy in all 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 regarded as essen- tially a Phcenician building, at once designed by Phoenicians, and the work of Phcenician hands." Recent explorations have revealed the enormous sub-structions 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. Many blocks are from half to two-thirds of this weight, and the fact that they are there now is a concrete testimony to the engineering powers of the Tyrians. "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 casting,—the great bowl or laver, supported by twelve oxen, 47 ft. in circum- ference, and holding seventeen thousand gallons, " far ex- ceeded in size any similar work of the Greeks, and would severely tax the ingenuity of modern metallurgists to con- struct 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 guess, the few remaining belonging to a much later period. Take an example of ingenuity from Aradus, built on a rocky island off the coast. It was dependent on rain for water, and on " a submarine spring which rose in the mid-channel of the strait from a depth of fifty cubits. This curious fountain was carefully covered with a mass of lead, let down from above, 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 .imagine that like in- ventiveness was applied to the building of ships, the improve- ment 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 the course of business, gave it to the nations of the West. 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 East."
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 inde- pendence. Phoenicia, however, had none of the geographical advantages of Hellas. It 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. The same necessity fell upon Persia ; and Alexander showed how thoroughly he understood the conditions of solid warfare, when, before advancing eastward, he crushed the maritime cities of Phoenicia, and their ally or master, as it happened, Egypt. Syria and Palestine can never be inde- pendent so long as great Empires exist to the cast, 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 the 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 the Phoenicians, yet the Romans overcame them, although their geographical situation was much better than that of the dwellers under Lebanon. That
the Phoenicians were high-spirited, brave, and enduring, the bitter sieges of Tyre alone suffice to prove ; but apart from them, the myriads of daring voyages on all seas which they carried oat for a thousand years with such comparatively poor means, are indisputable testimonies to their enterprise, hardi- hood. and tenacity. Carthage alone produced a fighting body of the 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 civic 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 directed " all the resources of courage, acuteness, and enthusiasm to the full development of commerce and its attendant arts of naviga- tion, manufacturing, and colonisation ;" that " Phoenician mariners supplied every nation with whatever it needed or was likely to purchase," and roamed everywhere. The sea- faring people, a band of whose sons circumnavigated Africa, and who regularly traded with Britain, must have had great qualities of a practical kind. Canon Rawlinson has com- pressed into a few hundred pages an account of their home, their institutions, their fearful religion, their accomplishments, their daring, and their long career; and his careful, as well as eloquent and brilliant volume, deserves to be widely read.
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