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GREEK City of Tyre in Phoenicia 360-332 B.C.
Silver Attic didrachm (7.24 grams) 19mm
Reference: Sear 5914 (£140 in 1979 price) -
Melqarth riding right on hippocamp, holding bow; beneath, waves and dolphin
right; cable border.
Owl standing right, head facing, carrying crook and flail under left wing;
Phoenician letters in field; all within cable border.
* Numismatic Note: Intriguing, rare historical ancient coin of
the famed city before it fell to Alexander the Great's rule.
Foundation
Tyre was founded around
2750 BC according to
Herodotus
and it appears on monuments as early as
1300 BC.
Philo of Byblos (in
Eusebius) quotes the antiquarian authority
Sanchuniathon as stating that it was first occupied by one Hypsuranius.
Sanchuniathon's work is said to be dedicated to "Abibalus king of Berytus" --
possibly the Abibaal who was king of Tyre.
There are ten
Amarna letters dated
1350 BC from the mayor,
Abi-Milku,
written to
Akenaten. The subject is often water, wood, and the
Habiru
overtaking the countryside, of the mainland, and how it affected the
island-city.
Early history
 The
commerce of the ancient world was gathered into the warehouses of Tyre. "Tyrian
merchants were the first who ventured to navigate the Mediterranean waters; and
they founded their
colonies on the coasts and neighbouring islands of the
Aegean Sea,
in Greece, on
the
northern coast of Africa, at
Carthage
and other places, in
Sicily and
Corsica, in
Spain at
Tartessus, and even beyond the
pillars of Hercules at Gadeira (Cádiz)"
In the time of
King David (c. 1000 BC), a friendly alliance was entered into between the
Kingdoms of
Israel and Tyre, which was ruled by
Hiram I. The
city of Tyre was particularly known for the production of a rare and
extraordinarily expensive sort of
purple
dye, produced from
the murex
shellfish, known as
Tyrian purple. This color was, in many cultures of ancient times,
reserved for the use of royalty, or at least nobility.
It was often attacked by Egypt, besieged by
Shalmaneser V, who was assisted by the
Phoenicians
of the mainland, for five years, and by
Nebuchadnezzar (586–573
BC) for thirteen years, without success, although a compromise peace was
made in which Tyre paid
tribute to
the
Babylonians. It later fell under the power of the
Persians.
In 332 BC,
the city was conquered by
Alexander the Great, after
a siege of seven months in which he built the
causeway
from the mainland to the island,[13]
but it continued to maintain much of its commercial importance until the
Christian era. The presence of the causeway affected water currents nearby,
causing sediment to build up, making the connection permanent.
In 315 BC,
Alexander's former general
Antigonus began his own siege of Tyre,[14]
taking the city a year later.[15]
In 126 BC,
Tyre regained its independence (from the
Seleucids)[16]
and was allowed to keep much of its independence when the area became a Roman
province in 64 BC. |
