[Footnote 34:  Compare the great Mogul’s throne, in Tavernier; that of the King of Persia, in Morier.]

All the vessels of his palace were of pure gold, silver was thought too mean:  his armory was furnished with gold; two hundred targets and three hundred shields of beaten gold were suspended in the house of Lebanon.  Josephus mentions a body of archers who escorted him from the city to his country palace, clad in dresses of Tyrian purple, and their hair powdered with gold dust.  But enormous as this wealth appears, the statement of his expenditure on the Temple, and of his annual revenue, so passes all credibility, that any attempt at forming a calculation on the uncertain data we possess may at once be abandoned as a hopeless task.  No better proof can be given of the uncertainty of our authorities, of our imperfect knowledge of the Hebrew weights of money, and, above all, of our total ignorance of the relative value which the precious metals bore to the commodities of life, than the estimate, made by Dr. Prideaux, of the treasures left by David, amounting to eight hundred millions, nearly the capital of our national debt.

Our inquiry into the sources of the vast wealth which Solomon undoubtedly possessed may lead to more satisfactory, though still imperfect, results.  The treasures of David were accumulated rather by conquest than by traffic.  Some of the nations he subdued, particularly the Edomites, were wealthy.  All the tribes seem to have worn a great deal of gold and silver in their ornaments and their armor; their idols were often of gold, and the treasuries of their temples perhaps contained considerable wealth.  But during the reign of Solomon almost the whole commerce of the world passed into his territories.  The treaty with Tyre was of the utmost importance:  nor is there any instance in which two neighboring nations so clearly saw, and so steadily pursued, without jealousy or mistrust, their mutual and inseparable interests.[35]

[Footnote 35:  The very learned work of Movers, Die Phoenizier (Bonn, 1841, Berlin, 1849) contains everything which true German industry and comprehensiveness can accumulate about this people.  Movers, though in such an inquiry conjecture is inevitable, is neither so bold, so arbitrary, nor so dogmatic in his conjectures as many of his contemporaries.  See on Hiram, ii. 326 et seq. Movers is disposed to appreciate as of high value the fragments preserved in Josephus of the Phoenician histories of Menander and Dios.

Mr. Kenrick’s Phoenicia may also be consulted with advantage.]

On one occasion only, when Solomon presented to Hiram twenty inland cities which he had conquered, Hiram expressed great dissatisfaction, and called the territory by the opprobrious name of Cabul.  The Tyrian had perhaps cast a wistful eye on the noble bay and harbor of Acco, or Ptolemais, which the prudent Hebrew either would not, or could not—­since it was part of the promised land—­dissever from his dominions.  So strict was the confederacy, that Tyre may be considered the port of Palestine, Palestine the granary of Tyre.  Tyre furnished the shipbuilders and mariners; the fruitful plains of Palestine victualled the fleets, and supplied the manufacturers and merchants of the Phoenician league with all the necessaries of life.[36]