readily to surprises and ambuscades; and should they reach the foot of the Lebanon range, they would find themselves entrapped in a region of slippery defiles, with steep paths at intervals cut into the rock, and almost inaccessible to chariots or horses, and so narrow in places that a handful of resolute men could have held them for a long time against whole battalions.  The enemy preferred to make for the two natural breaches at the respective extremities of the line of defence, and for the two insular cities which flanked the approaches to them—­Tyre in the case of those coming from Egypt, Arvad and Simyra for assailants from the Euphrates.  The Arvadians, bellicose by nature, would offer strong resistance to the invader, and not permit themselves to be conquered without a brave struggle with the enemy, however powerful he might be.* When the disproportion of the forces which they could muster against the enemy convinced them of the folly of attempting an open conflict, their island-home offered them a refuge where they would be safe from any attacks.

* Thutmosis III. was obliged to enter on a campaign against Arvad in the year XXIX., in the year XXX., and probably twice in the following years.  Under Amenothes III. and IV. we see that these people took part in all the intrigues directed against Egypt; they were the allies of the Khati against Ramses II. in the campaign of the year V. and later on we find them involved in most of the wars against Assyria.

Sometimes the burning and pillaging of their property on the mainland might reduce them to throw themselves on the mercy of their foes, but such submission did not last long, and they welcomed the slightest occasion for regaining their liberty.  Conquered again and again on account of the smallness of their numbers, they were never discouraged by their reverses, and Phoenicia owed all its military history for a long period to their prowess.  The Tyrians were of a more accommodating nature, and there is no evidence, at least during the early centuries of their existence, of the display of those obstinate and blind transports of bravery by which the Arvadians were carried away.*

* No campaign against Tyre is mentioned in any of the Egyptian annals:  the expedition of Thutmosis III. against Senzauru was directed against a town of Coele-Syria mentioned in the Tel el-Amarna tablets with the orthography Zinzar, the Sizara-Larissa of Graeco-Roman times, the Shaizar of the Arab Chronicles.  On the contrary, the Tel el-Amarna tablets contain several passages which manifest the fidelity of Tyre and its governors to the King of Egypt.

Their foreign policy was reduced to a simple arithmetical question, which they discussed in the light of their industrial or commercial interests.  As soon as they had learned from a short experience that a certain Pharaoh had at his disposal armies against which they could offer no serious opposition, they at once surrendered