lively among them, he might recover them for his own use and delights. Of the strange accident about the death of one Strato king of these coasts, " St. Jerome and others make mention; who having heard that the Persians were near him with an army too weighty for his strength, and finding that he was to hope for little grace, because of his falling away from that empire, and his adhering to the Egyptians, he determining to kill himself, but fainting in the execution, his wife, being present, wrested the sword out of his hand, and slew him; which done, she also therewith pierced her own body, and died.

After Alexander was possessed of Zidon, and the other Strato driven thence, he gave the kingdom to Hephaestion to dispose of; who having received great entertainment of one of the citizens, in whose house he lodged, offered to recompense him therewith, and willingly offered to establish him therein but this citizen, no less virtuous than rich, desired Hephæstion that this honour might be conferred on some one of the blood and race of their ancient kings, and presented unto him Balonymus, whom Curtius calls Abdolominus; Justin, Abdolomius; and Plutarch, Alynomus : who, at the very hour that he was called to this regal estate, was with his own hands working in his garden, setting herbs and roots for his relief and sustenance; though otherwise a wise man, and exceeding just.

These were the ancient kings of Zidon; whose estate being afterwards changed into popular or aristocratical, and by times and turns subjected to the emperors of the east, there remaineth no further memory of them, than that which is formerly delivered in the tribe of Asher.

The kings of Tyre, who they were before Samuel's time, it doth not appear: Josephus the historian, as is said, had many things wherewith he garnished his Antiquities from the Tyrian chronicles; and out of Josephus and Theophilus Antiochenus there may be gathered a descent of some twenty kings of the Tyrians; but these authors, though they both pretend to write out of Menander Ephesius, do in

u Hieron. 1. 1. cont. Jovin.

no sort agree in the times of their reigns, nor in other particulars.

Abibalus is the first king of the Tyrians that Josephus and Theophilus remember, whom Theophilus calls Abemalus; the same perchance that the son of Sirach mentioneth in his 46th chapter, speaking of the princes of the Tyrians.

To this Abibalus, Suron succeeded, if he be not one and the same with Abibalus. David, saith Eusebius out of Eupolemus, constrained this Suron to pay him tribute, of whom also David complaineth, Psalm lxxxiii.

Hiram succeeded Suron, whom Josephus calls Irom, and Theophilus sometimes Hieromenus, sometimes Hieromus, but Tatian and Zonaras Chiram. He entered into a league with David, and sent him cedars, with masons and carpenters, to perform his buildings in Jerusalem, after he had beaten thence the Jebusites. The same was he that so greatly assisted Solomon; whom he not only furnished with cedars, and other materials towards the raising of the temple, and with great sums of money, but also he joined with him in his enterprise of the East India, and of Ophir, and furnished Solomon with mariners and pilots; the Tyrians being of all nations the most excellent navigators; and lent him 120 talents of gold. Of this y Hiram, there is not only mention in divers places of scripture, but in Josephus's Antiquities, the 7th and 8th chap. ver. 2, 3. in Theophilus's 3d book, in Tatianus's oration against the Greeks, and in Zonaras, tome the first. This prince seemed to be very mighty and magnificent; he despised the twenty towns which Solomon offered him; he defended himself against that victorious king David; and gave his daughter in marriage to Solomon, called the Zidonian; for whose sake he was contented to worship Asteroth, the idol of the Phoenicians. Hiram lived 53 years.

Baleastartus, whom a Theoph. Antiochenus calleth Bazo

X Præp. Evang. l. 9. c. 4

y 2 Sam. v. &c. 2 Sam. v. 1 Kings i. 9. 20. 1 Chron. xiv. 2 Chron. ii. 8,9.

z 1 Kings xi.

a

Theoph. seventeen years.

rus, succeeded Hiram king of Tyre and Zidon, and reigned seven years, according to Josephus.

Abdastartus, the eldest son of Baleastartus, governed nine years, and lived but twenty years according to Josephus but after Theophilus he reigned twelve years, and lived fifty-four, who being slain by the four sons of his own nurse, the eldest of them held the kingdom twelve years. Astartus, brother to Abdastartus, recovered the kingdom from this usurper, and reigned twelve years.

b Astarimus, or Atharimus, after b Theophilus, a third brother, followed Astartus, and ruled nine years, and lived in all fifty-four.

c Phelles the fourth son of Baleastartus, and brother to the three former kings, slew Astarimus, and reigned eight months, and lived fifty years.

Ithobalus, (or Juthobalus in Theophilus,) son to the third brother Astarimus, who was the chief priest of the goddess Astarta, which was a dignity next unto the king, revenged the death of his father, and slaughtered his uncle d Phelles, and reigned thirty-two years; the same which in 1 Kings xvi. is called Ethbaal, whose daughter Jezebel Achab married.

Badezor, or Bazor, the son of Ithobalus, or e Ethbaal, brother to Jezebel, succeeded his father, and reigned six years, and lived in all forty-five.

Mettimus succeeded Badezor, and reigned but nine years, saith f Josephus; he had two sons, Pygmalion and Barca, and two daughters, Elisa and Anna.

Pygmalion reigned after Mettimus his father forty years, and lived fifty-six. In the seventh year of whose reign Elisa sailed into Africa, and built Carthage, 143 years and eight months after the temple of Solomon; which by our account was 289 years after Troy was taken, and 143 before Rome; and therefore that fiction by Virgil of Æneas

b Joseph. 54. Theoph. 58. c Theoph.

d Joseph. 32. Theoph. 12.

e 1 Kings xvi. 31. Joseph. six years. Theoph. 26.

f Joseph. 9. Theoph. 29.

and Dido must be far out of square. For Pygmalion, covetous of Sicheus's riches, who had married his sister Elisa, slew him traitorously as he accompanied him in hunting; or, if we believe & Justin and Virgil, at the altar: whereupon Elisa, fearing to be despoiled of her husband's treasure, fled by sea into Africa, as aforesaid; whom when Pygmalion prepared to pursue, he was by his mother's tears, and by threats from the oracle, arrested. Barca accompanied his sister, and assisted her in the erection of Carthage; and from him sprang that noble family of the Barcæ in Africa, of which race descended many famous captains, and the great Hannibal. Servius interprets this name of Dido by Virago, because of her manlike acts; others from Jedidia, a surname of Solomon.

Eluleus succeeded Pygmalion, and reigned thirty-six years; the same that overthrew the fleet of Salmanassar in the port of Tyre; notwithstanding which, he continued his siege before it on the land-side five years, but in vain.

After Eluleus, Ethobales governed the Tyrians, who vaunted himself to be as wise as Daniel; and that he knew all secrets, saith Ezekiel, of whom the prophet writeth at large in his 28th chapter: out of whom it is gathered that this prince died, or was slain in that long siege of Nabuchodonosor; who surrounded and attempted Tyre thirteen years together, ere he prevailed.

Baal followed Ethobales, and reigned ten years a tributary, perchance to Nabuchodonosor; for after his death it was governed by divers judges, succeeding each other; first by Ecnibalus, then by Chelbis, Abarus the priest, Mittonus, and Gerastus, who held it among them some seven years and odd months; after whom Balatorus commanded therein as a king for one year; after him Merbalus, sent from Babylon, four years; after him Irom, sent thence also, twenty years. In the 17th of whose reign Cyrus began to govern Persia.

Justin. 1. 11. Virgil. l. 1.

SECT. III.

Of Bozius's conceit, that the Edumeans inhabiting along the Red sea were the progenitors of the Tyrians, and that the Tyrians from them received and brought into Phoenicia the knowledge of the true God.

Of the great mutations of this kingdom and state of the Tyrians, mixed with a discourse of divers other nations, there is one Bozius that hath written a tract at large, entitled, De Ruinis Gentium. And although the great and many alterations found in this and other cities, yea in all things under heaven, have proceeded from his ordinance who only is unchangeable and the same for ever; yet whereas the said Bozius, enforcing here-hence that the prosperity and ruin of the Tyrians were fruits of their embracing or forsaking the true religion, to prove this his assertion, supposeth the Tyrians to have been Edumeans, descended from Esau, Jacob's brother: first, it can hardly be believed that Tyre, when it flourished most in her ancient glory, was in any sort truly devout and religious. But to this end (h besides the proof which the scriptures give of Hiram's good affection, when Solomon built the temple) he brings many conjectural arguments, whereof the strongest is their pedigree and descent; it being likely, in his opinion, that the posterity of Esau received from him by tradition the religion of Abraham and Isaac. That the Tyrians were Edumeans he endeavours to shew, partly by weak reasons painfully strained from some affinity of names, which are arguments of more delight than weight; partly by authority. For Strabo, Herodotus, Pliny, and others, witness that the Tyrians came from the Red sea, in which there were three islands, called Tyrus, Aradus, and Zidon; which very names (as he thinketh) were afterwards given to the cities of Phoenicia. Considering therefore that all the coast of the Red sea was (in his opinion) under the Edumeans, as Elah and Esiongaber, or under the Amalekites, who descended of Amalek the nephew of Esau, whose chief city was Madian, so called of Madian the son of Abraham

h Boz. de Ruin. Gent. l. 5. c. 7.