The Project Gutenberg EBook of History of Phoenicia, by George Rawlinson
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Title: History of Phoenicia
Author: George Rawlinson
Release Date: March 25, 2006 [EBook #2331]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF PHOENICIA ***
Produced by John Bickers and Dagny and David Widger
HISTORY
OF
P H OE N I C I A
by George Rawlinson
Camden Professor of Ancient
History in the University of Oxford
Canon of Canterbury
Corresponding Member of the Royal Academy of Turin
First Published 1889 by
Longmans, Green, and Co.
Contents
TO THE
CHANCELLOR, VICE-CHANCELLOR, and SCHOLARS
Of The
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
This Work
His Last as Occupant of a
Professorial Chair
Is Dedicated
As a Token of Respect and Gratitude
By The
CAMDEN PROFESSOR
Oct. 1 MDCCCLXXXIX
PREPARER'S NOTE
The original text contains a number of characters that are
not available even in 8-bit Windows text. Where possible
these have been represented with a similar letter, but some
things, e.g. Hebrew script, have been omitted.
The 8-bit version of this text includes Windows font
characters. These may be lost in 7-bit versions of the text,
or when viewed with different fonts.
Greek text has been transliterated within brackets "{}" using an Oxford English Dictionary alphabet table.
Diacritical marks have been lost. Phoenician or other
Semitic text has been replaced with an ellipsis in brackets,
i.e. "{...}".
The numerous sketches and maps in the original have also
been omitted.
PREFACE
Histories
of Phoenicia or of the Phoenicians were written towards the middle of the
present century by Movers and Kenrick. The elaborate work of the former writer01 collected into five moderate-sized
volumes all the notices that classical antiquity had preserved of the Religion,
History, Commerce, Art, &c., of this celebrated and interesting nation.
Kenrick, making a free use of the stores of knowledge thus accumulated, added
to them much information derived from modern research, and was content to give
to the world in a single volume of small size,02 very scantily illustrated, the
ascertained results of criticism and inquiry on the subject of the Phoenicians
up to his own day. Forty-four years have since elapsed; and in the course of
them large additions have been made to certain branches of the inquiry, while
others have remained very much as they were before. Travellers, like Robinson,
Walpole, Tristram, Renan, and Lortet, have thrown great additional light on the
geography, geology, fauna, and flora of the country. Excavators, like Renan and
the two Di Cesnolas, have caused the soil to yield up most valuable remains
bearing upon the architecture, the art, the industrial pursuits, and the
manners and customs of the people. Antiquaries, like M. Clermont-Ganneau and
MM. Perrot and Chipiez, have subjected the remains to careful examination and
criticism, and have definitively fixed the character of Phoenician Art, and its
position in the history of artistic effort. Researches are still being carried
on, both in Phoenicia Proper and in the Phoenician dependency of Cyprus, which
are likely still further to enlarge our knowledge with respect to Phoenician
Art and Archæology; but it is not probable that they will affect seriously the
verdict already delivered by competent judges on those subjects. The time
therefore appeared to the author to have come when, after nearly half a century
of silence, the history of the people might appropriately be rewritten. The
subject had long engaged his thoughts, closely connected as it is with the
histories of Egypt, and of the "Great Oriental Monarchies," which for
thirty years have been to him special objects of study; and a work embodying
the chief results of the recent investigations seemed to him a not unsuitable
termination to the historical efforts which his resignation of the Professorship
of Ancient History at Oxford, and his entrance upon a new sphere of labour,
bring naturally to an end.
The
author wishes to express his vast obligations to MM. Perrot and Chipiez for the
invaluable assistance which he has derived from their great work,03 and to their publishers, the MM.
Hachette, for their liberality in allowing him the use of so large a number of
MM. Perrot and Chipiez' Illustrations. He is also much beholden to the same
gentlemen for the use of charts and drawings originally published in the
"Géographie Universelle." Other works from which he has drawn either
materials or illustrations, or both, are (besides Movers' and Kenrick's) M.
Ernest Renan's "Mission de Phénicie," General Di Cesnola's
"Cyprus," A. Di Cesnola's "Salaminia," M. Ceccaldi's
"Monuments Antiques de Cypre," M. Daux's "Recherches sur les
Emporia Phéniciens," the "Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum," M.
Clermont-Ganneau's "Imagerie Phénicienne," Mr. Davis's "Carthage
and her Remains," Gesenius's "Scripturæ Linguæque Phoeniciæ
Monumenta," Lortet's "La Syrie d'aujourd'hui," Serra di Falco's
"Antichità della Sicilia," Walpole's "Ansayrii," and Canon
Tristram's "Land of Israel." The difficulty has been to select from
these copious stores the most salient and noteworthy facts, and to marshal them
in such a form as would make them readily intelligible to the ordinary English
reader. How far he has succeeded in doing this he must leave the public to
judge. In making his bow to them as a "Reader" and Writer "of
Histories,"04 he has to thank them for a degree of
favour which has given a ready sale to all his previous works, and has carried
some of them through several editions.
CANTERBURY:
August 1889.
HISTORY OF PHOENICIA