Introduction to Tire

Tire was an ancient Phoenician port city, which in mythology is known as the birthplace of Europe (who gave Europe its name) and the mischievous Carthage (who gave aid to, and fell in love with, Aenea

of Troy).

The name means "rock" and the city consists of two parts, the island's main trading center and "Old Tyre" about half a mile across from the mainland.

The old city known as Ushu was founded c.

2750 B.C., and trading centers developed soon after.

Over time, the island group became more prosperous, more densely populated, and more heavily fortified than Ushu.

The prosperity of Tire attracted the attention of King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon who besieged the city for thirteen years in the 6th century BC without breaching their defenses.

During this siege, most of the mainland city's inhabitants abandoned it for the relative safety of the island city.

Ushu became a suburb of Tire on the mainland, remaining so until the arrival of Alexander the Great.

The Tyrians were known as the workers who extracted dye from the shells of Murex.

This purple dye was highly valued in the ancient world and had royal connotations.

It also gave the Phoenicians their Greek name - Phoenix - meaning "purple people".

The city-state surpassed its sister state Sidon and became the most powerful in all of Phoenicia.

Tire is quoted in the Bible which claims that both Jesus and St Paul visited the city in the New Testament and kept the famous siege of Alexander the Great in military history.

Tires are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Tire was in its golden age around the 10th century BC, and enjoyed great prosperity by colonizing other places in the 8th century BC.

The Golden Age of Tire Tire was in its golden age around the 10th century BC and colonized the rest of the region in the 8th century, enjoying great wealth and prosperity largely due to its alliance with Israel.

Tire's alliance and trade agreement with King David of Israel was initiated by King Abibal of Tire, who sent the new king wood from the legendary cedars of Lebanon (Abibal's son Hiram is said to have served David

as his son Solomon did)).

This alliance resulted in a very lucrative partnership that benefited both parties.

Historian Richard Miles said, “Commercially, the deal not only gave Tire privileged access to valuable markets in Israel, Judea and northern Syria, it also provided greater opportunities for overseas joint ventures.

Multiple opportunities. In fact, a Tire-Israel expedition went to Sudan and Somalia, and possibly as far as the Indian Ocean” (32).

Another development that contributed to the wealth of Tyre appears to have been the city's religious revolution under Abibal and Hiram, which elevated the god known as Melkat (a deified version of Hercules) to the traditional divinity of the Phoenicians

Couple Baal (also known as El) and Astarte (Asherah).

The supremacy of Melqart (whose name means "King of the City") took power away from the priests of the traditional temples of the gods and placed them at the mercy of the palace. Richard Myers

Miles) points out that "the royal decision to replace the traditional main god of Tyr with the new god Melqart seemed to be an attempt to bring the temple up to date" (32).

The result not only increased the wealth of the palace, but also increased the prosperity of the entire city by distributing wealth more efficiently.

Alexander the Great and the Siege The king, rather than the priest, now served as "the bridge between the secular world and the celestial realm, where the needs of the gods could correspond closely to the political exigencies of the palace" (Miles, 33).

This new religious policy encouraged closer ties between the people of the city, designating them as different from other Phoenician city-states and therefore special in the eyes of their gods.

Myers writes: The king even introduced an elaborate new ritual to celebrate the annual Melkat festival.

Each spring, in elaborate festivals called egersis, statues of the gods were placed on a huge raft and then burned as they drifted out to sea, while the gathered crowds sang hymns.

For the Tyrians, as for many other ancient Near Eastern peoples, the emphasis was on the restorative properties of fire, as the gods themselves were not destroyed by the smoke but resurrected, and thus the burning of the statue represented rebirth.

To emphasize the importance of Egesis in maintaining cohesion within the people of Tire, all foreigners were required to leave the city during the ceremony (33-34).

It was this ritual, and its importance to the people, that would lead to the destruction of Tire and the massacre or enslavement of its people.

Alexander the Great arrived in the city in 332 BC, fresh from his conquests at Sidon, and demanded the surrender of Tire.

Led by Sidon, the Tyrians recognized Alexander's greatness and presented him with gifts.

All seemed to go well, and Alexander, satisfied with their obedience, said he would sacrifice in honor of their god at the temple of Melkat.

The Tyrians could not allow this, for it would be blasphemous for foreigners to offer sacrifices in their god's holy home, not to mention the rituals of being an Egyssian so close at hand.