CARTHAGE. HI 



to choose a side. Like the Jews, they chose the wrong 

 one, and old Tyre and Jerusalem were demolished at 

 the same time. 



From that day the Phoenicians hegan to go down 

 the hill ; and under the Persians their ships and sailors 

 were forced to do service in the royal navy. This was 

 the hardest kind of tribute that they could be made 

 to pay, for it deprived them not only of their 

 profits, but of the means by which those profits were 

 obtained. In the Macedonian war they went wrong 

 again ; they chose the side of the Persians although 

 they had so often rebelled against them, and Tyre 

 was severely handled by its conqueror. But it was the 

 foundation of Alexandria which ruined the Phoenician 

 cities, as it ruined Athens. From that time Athens 

 ceased to be commercial, and became a University. 

 Tyre also ceased to be commercial, but remained a 

 celebrated manufactory. Under the Roman empire it 

 enjoyed the monopoly of the sacred purple, which 

 was afterwards adopted by the popes. It prospered 

 under the caliphs ; its manufactories in the middle 

 ages were conducted by the Jews ; but it fell before 

 the artillery of the Turks to rise no more. The 

 secret of the famous dye was lost, and the Vatican 

 changed the colour of its robes. 



But while Phoenicia was declining in the East, its 

 great colony, Carthage, was rising in the West. This 

 city had been founded by malcontents from Tyre. But 

 they kindly cherished the memories of their Mother- 

 land ; and like the Pilgrim Fathers, always spoke of 

 the country which had cast them forth as Home. And, 

 after a time all the old wrongs were forgotten, all 

 angry feelings died away. Every year the Cartha- 

 ginians sent to the national temple a tenth part of 



