The Oxford Handbook of the Phoenician and Punic Mediterranean by Carolina Lopez-Ruiz & Brian R Doak

Author:Carolina Lopez-Ruiz & Brian R Doak
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9780190499341
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2019-07-29T04:00:00+00:00

Tyre

Tyre was one of the leading Phoenician ports during the Persian period, surpassed in importance only by Sidon. Located south of Sidon on the mainland and two small offshore islands, Tyre played a critical role in Persian naval operations and maritime trade in the fifth and fourth centuries bce. As with the other Phoenician city-states, little is known of Tyre’s history after 500 bce, until the conquest of Alexander the Great. Sidon and Tyre sent out many colonists in this period, populating villages and towns along the Levantine coast and elsewhere in the central and eastern Mediterranean basins, including Carthage. Classical sources and archaeological data clearly support this assertion. Unquestionably, Tyre took part in the general revolt against Persia in the reign of Tennes, ca. 351 bce. Classical historians also noted the resistance that Tyre raised against Alexander in 332 (Rawlinson 1889: 511–29; Fleming 1915: 56ff.). Unlike the other Phoenician cities, Tyre fought the Macedonian advances, forcing a siege by land and by sea. Some of these events are mirrored in the coinage. The Phoenician standard was initially adopted by the Tyrian mint, later to be replaced by the Attic standard in the mid-fourth century bce (figure 25.2) (in general see Elayi and Elayi 2009). The Persians may have considered this an economic and commercial form of “sleeping with the enemy,” as Phoenician subordinates established closer relationships with the Greek opposition.

Figure 25.2 A Tyrian shekel of ca. 410–390 bce.

Source: Public domain.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.