THE SIEGE OF TYRE

B.C. 333

- Jacob Abbott

The city of Tyre.

The city of Tyre stood on a small island, three or four miles in diameter, [B] on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea. It was, in those days, the greatest commercial city in the world, and it exercised a great maritime¹ power by means of its fleets and ships, which traversed² every part of the Mediterranean.

Its situation and extent.

Tyre had been built originally on the main-land; but in some of the wars which it had to encounter with the kings of Babylon in the East, this old city had been abandoned by the inhabitants, and a new one built upon an island not far from the shore, which could be more easily defended from an enemy. The old city had gone to ruin, and its place was occupied by old walls, fallen towers, stones, columns, arches, and other remains of the ancient magnificence of the place.

Pursuits of the Tyrians.

The island on which the Tyre of Alexander's day had been built was about half a mile from the shore. The water between was about eighteen feet deep, and formed a harbor for the vessels. The great business of the Tyrians was commerce. They bought and sold merchandise³ in all the ports of the Mediterranean Sea, and transported it by their merchant vessels to and fro. They had also fleets of war galleys, which they used to protect their interests on the high seas, and in the various ports which their merchant vessels visited. They were thus wealthy and powerful, and yet they lived shut up upon their little island, and were almost entirely independent of the main-land.

1. maritime: naval, marine 2. traversed: crossed 3. merchandise: goods

Their great wealth and resources. The walls of Tyre.