Outlines of Universal History, Designed as a Text-book and for Private Reading. George Park Fisher
of Byblus, in the second century A.D., is now generally believed to be the work of Philo himself.
HISTORICAL EVENTS.—In the struggles against the Mesopotamian empires, the Phaenicians defended themselves with valor and perseverance. When Sargon (722–705 B.C.) had subjugated their cities on the mainland, insular Tyre for five years repelled his assaults, although the conduits bringing fresh water from the shore were cut off, and the besieged were obliged to content themselves with the scanty supply to be gained from wells dug with great labor. Soon the Tyrian fleets regained their mastery on the sea. When Nebuchadnezzar captured old Tyre, and a multitude of its inhabitants shared the lot of the Jews, and were dragged off by the conqueror to the Euphrates, the island city withstood his attack for thirteen years, and did not yield until it extorted from him a treaty. But the power of resistance was weakened by the repeated invasions and domination of Nineveh and Babylon. Tyre submitted to Persia after the downfall of the Babylonian monarchy, and added her fleet to the Persian forces; although to the Phoenician towns was left a degree of freedom and their local government. Sidon, Tyre, and Arados had a council of their own, which met with their respective kings and senators at Tripolis, for the regulation of matters of common interest. Manufactures and commerce continued to flourish. Under the Persian supremacy, Sidon once more became the chief city. In the middle of the fourth century B.C., it revolted against the tyranny of the foreign governors. The Persian king, Ochus, ordered that the noblest citizens should be put to death; whereupon the inhabitants set the city on fire, and destroyed themselves and their treasures in the flames. Tyre remained, but ventured to resist Alexander the Great, after his conquest of the Persians, and by him was captured and partly demolished (332 B.C.). After the death of Alexander, the Phoenicians fell under the sway of the Seleucidæ at Antioch, and, for a time, of the Egyptian Ptolemies. Both Tyre and Sidon were rebuilt, and flourished anew. It is probably to the third century B.C. that we should assign the native Sidonian dynasty which included the Kings Eshmunazar I., Sedek-yaton, Tabnit, Bodashtart, and Eshmunazar II., whose names are known to us from inscriptions. In the time of the last-named king, the cities Dor and Joppa, with the plain of Sharon, belonged to Sidon.
CARTHAGINIAN HISTORY.—The most prominent of all the Phoenician settlements was Carthage. It had remarkable advantages of situation. Its harbor was sufficient for the anchorage of the largest vessels, and it had a fertile territory around it. These circumstances, in conjunction with the energy of its inhabitants, placed it at the head of the Phoenician colonies. In Carthage, there was no middle class. There were the rich landholders and merchants, and the common people. The government was practically an oligarchy. There were two kings or judges (Shofetes), with little power, and a council or senate; possibly a second council also. But the senate and magistrates were subordinate to an aristocratic body, the hundred judges. The bulk of the citizens had little more than a nominal influence in public affairs.
ASCENDENCY OF CARTHAGE.-When the Greeks (about 600 B.C.) spread their colonies, the rivals of the Phoenician settlements, in the west of the Mediterranean, Carthage was moved to deviate from the policy of the parent cities, and to make herself the champion, protector, and mistress of the Phoenician dependencies in all that region. Thus she became the head of a North-African empire, which asserted its supremacy against its Greek adversaries in Sicily and Spain, as well as in Lybia. When Tyre was subjugated by Persia, Carthage was strengthened by the immigration of many of the best Tyrian families. As the Tyrian strength waned, the Carthaginian power increased. Syracuse, in Sicily, became the first Greek naval power, and the foremost antagonist of the Carthaginian dominion. In 480 B.C., Carthage made war upon the Greek cities in Sicily. The contest was renewed from time to time. In the conflicts between 439–409 B.C., she confirmed her sway over the western half of the island. In later conflicts (317–275 B.C.), in which Agathocles, tyrant of Syracuse, was a noted leader of the Greeks, and, after his death, Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, was their ally, Carthage alternately lost and regained her Sicilian cities. But the result of the war was to establish her maritime ascendency.
LITERATURE.—Works mentioned on pp. 16, 42: Pietschmann, Geschichte der Phönizier (1889); Rawlinson, History of Phoenicia (1889); E. Meycr, Art. Phoenicia in the Encycl. Bibl.; Perrot & Chipiez, History of Art in Phoenicia and Cyprus, 2 vols.; Renan, Mission de Phenicie (1874); Meltzer, Geschichte der Karthager; F. W. Newman's Defense of Carthage.
CHAPTER IV. THE HEBREWS.
PECULIARITY OF THE HEBREWS.—While the rest of the nations worshiped "gods many and lords many," whom they confounded with the motions of the heavenly bodies, or with other aspects of nature, there was one people which attained to a faith in one God, the Creator and Preserver of the universe, who is exalted above nature, and whom it was deemed impious to represent by any material image. More than is true of any other people, religion was consciously the one end and aim of their being. To bring the true religion to its perfection, and to give it a world-wide diffusion and sway, was felt by them to be their heaven-appointed mission. The peculiarity of their faith made them stand alone, and rendered them exclusive, and intolerant of the surrounding idolatries. The mountainous character of their land, separated by Lebanon from Phoenicia, and by the desert from the nations on the East and South, was well adapted to the work which they had to fulfill in the course of history.
THE PATRIARCHAL AGE.—The Israelites traced their descent from Abraham, who, to escape the infection of idolatry, left his home, which was in Ur on the lower Euphrates, and came into the land of Canaan, where he led a wandering life, but became the father of a group of nations. According to the popular narrative, Isaac, his son by Sarah, was recognized as the next chief of the family; while Ishmael, Abraham's son by Hagar, became the progenitor of the Arabians. Of the two sons of Isaac, Esau, who was a huntsman, married a daughter of the native people: from him sprung the Edomites. Jacob kept up the occupation of a herdsman. Of his twelve sons, Joseph was an object of jealousy to the other eleven, by whom he was sold to a caravan of merchants on their way to Egypt. There, through his skill in interpreting dreams, he rose to high dignities and honors in the court of Pharaoh; and, by his agency, the entire family were allowed to settle oh the pasture-lands of Goshen in northern Egypt (p. 40). Here in the neighborhood of Heliopolis, for several centuries, they fed their flocks. From Israel, the name given to Jacob, they were commonly called Israelites. The name Hebrews was apparently derived from a word signifying "across the river" (Euphrates); but the original application is quite uncertain.
THE EXODUS (see p. 41).—The time came when the Israelites were no longer well treated. A new Egyptian dynasty was on the throne. Their numbers were an occasion of apprehension. An Egyptian princess saved Moses from being a victim of a barbarous edict issued against them. He grew to manhood in Pharaoh's court, but became the champion of his people. Compelled to flee, he received in the lonely region of Mount Sinai that sublime disclosure of the only living God which qualified him to be the leader and deliverer of his brethren. A "strong east wind," parting the Red Sea, opened a passage for the Israelites, whom a succession of calamities, inflicted upon their oppressors by the Almighty, had driven Pharaoh (Menephthah?) to permit to depart in a body; but the returning waves ingulfed the pursuing Egyptian army. "The sea covered them: they sank as lead in the mighty waters." For a long period Moses led the people about in the wilderness. They were trained by this experience to habits of order and military discipline. At Horeb, the Decalogue, the kernel, so to speak, of the Hebrew codes, the foundation of the religious and social life of the people, was given them under circumstances fitted to awaken the deepest awe. They placed themselves under Jehovah as the Ruler and Protector of the nation in a special sense. The worship of other divinities, every form of idolatry, was to be a treasonable offense. The laws of Jehovah were to be kept in the Ark of the Covenant, in the "Tabernacle," which was the sanctuary, and was transported from place to place. The priesthood was devolved on Aaron and his successors, at the side of whom were their assistants, the Levites. The civil authority in each tribe was placed in the hands of the patriarchal chief and the "elders," the right