Tyre, no Sidon

   I never hear of the city of Tyre without hearing its sister city of Sidon mentioned as well. Jesus and the prophets were always predicting the destruction of these proud merchant cities for failing to repent. But I recently came across Tyre by itself in an article about Frumentius, a native of that city on the coast of present-day Lebanon. The city of Tyre (and Sidon) has been destroyed and rebuilt many times since the Bronze Age till now.

   Frumentius lived in the fourth century A.D. at which time Tyre was part of the Roman Empire during a peaceful era. His uncle made a good living as a philosopher and took Frumentius and his brother on a tour of the known world. 

   On the way home their ship was either wrecked in a storm, or it landed in a port on the coast of Ethiopia. The crew was either slaughtered, while Frumentius and his brother were enslaved, or the boys were invited to the king's court while the ship went on its way unharmed. Accounts from the fourth century can be ambiguous.

   We do know that the boys were given good jobs at the Ethiopian court, including educating the future king. Frumentius and his brother eventually got homesick and headed back to Tyre. In Alexandria, Egypt,  Frumentius told the bishop that the Ethiopians needed their own bishop. "You are it," the bishop told Frumentius, and after some training and his ordination, Frumentius went back to Ethiopia. He did such a good job that he became a saint after his death.

   Enough about Frumentius. I'm also interested in the destruction of Tyre at the hands of Alexander the Great in 332 B.C., five centuries before Frumentius's time. Tyre was part of the Persian Empire then and Alexander was at war with Persia. He had conquered all the other ports along the coast, but Tyre was hard because it was on an island a half mile off the coast and had thick walls all the way around the island.

   Alexander sent negotiators to convince the island to surrender. The Tyrians declined. He sent another set of negotiators. The Tyrians killed them and threw their bodies off the wall. "We said no!" Alexander got angry and started building a causeway to the island. About half way to the island the water got much deeper so he hauled two large siege towers to the end of the causeway and bombarded the city wall with catapults atop the towers.

   The Tyrian's were set up for sieges and pushed fire ships loaded with pitch, tar, and cauldrons of oil into the siege towers and burned them up. After seven months of this, Alexander realized he needed ships if he was ever going to take the island, but his ships were busy elsewhere. Luckily for him, his ships won their battles elsewhere and soon arrived at Tyre. The Tyrians put up a good fight but were overwhelmed by Alexander's navy and army.

   Alexander now wanted revenge on the Tyrians for wasting his time and killing his soldiers. Six thousand Tyrian soldiers were put to the sword and another 2,000 were crucified on the beach. Anyone who took asylum in the Temple of Melqart was pardoned, but the temple was too small for everyone and the remaining 30,000 inhabitants were sold into slavery. Tyre was repopulated by Alexander's friends and allies, Frumentius's ancestors among them perhaps. 

Tyre, B.A.t.G. (Before Alexander the Great)