and the Romans Carthage.  The genius of Virgil has rendered the name of Dido illustrious:  but history fails to recognise in the narratives which form the basis of his tale anything beyond a legendary account fabricated after the actual origin (814-813 B.C.) of the great Punic city had been forgotten.  Thus weakened, Tyre could less than ever think of opposing the ambitious designs of Assyria:  Pygmalion took no part in the rebellions of the petty Syrian kings against Samsi-ramman, and in 803 B.C. he received his suzerain Ramman-nirari with the accustomed gifts, when that king passed through Phoenicia before attacking Damascus.  Pygmalion died about 774 B.C., and the names of his immediate successors are not known;* it may be supposed, however, that when the power of Nineveh temporarily declined, the ties which held Tyre to Assyria became naturally relaxed, and the city released herself from the burden of a tribute which had in the past been very irregularly paid.

* The fragment of Menander ’which has preserved for us the list of Tyrian kings from Abi-baal to Pygmalion, was only quoted by Josephus, because, the seventh year of Pygmalion’s reign corresponding to the date of the foundation of Carthage,—­814—­813 B.C. according to the chronological system of Timssus,—­the Hebrew historian found in it a fixed date which seemed to permit of his establishing the chronology of the kings of Israel and Judah on a trustworthy basis between the reign of Pygmalion and Hiram I., the contemporary of David and Solomon.

The yoke was reassumed half a century later, at the mere echo of the first victories of Tiglath-pileser iii.; and Hiram ii., who then reigned in Tyre, hastened to carry to the camp at Arpad assurances of his fidelity (742 B.C.).  He gave pledges of his allegiance once more in 738 B.C.; then he disappears, and Mutton ii. takes his place about 736 B.C.  This king cast off, unhappily for himself, his hereditary apathy, and as soon as a pretext offered itself, abandoned the policy of neutrality to which his ancestors had adhered so firmly.  He entered into an alliance in 734 B.C. with Damascus, Israel and Philistia, secretly supported and probably instigated by Egypt; then, when Israel was conquered and Damascus overthrown, he delayed repairing his error till an Assyrian army appeared before Tyre:  he had then to pay the price of his temerity by 120 talents of gold and many loads of merchandise (728 B.C.).  The punishment was light and the loss inconsiderable in comparison with the accumulated wealth of the city, which its maritime trade was daily increasing:* Mutton thought the episode was closed,** but the peaceful policy of his house, having been twice interrupted, could not be resumed.

     [For a description of the trade carried on by Tyre, cf. 
     Ezelc. xxvi., xxvii., and xxviii.—–­Tr.]