ly followed the example of Tyre, whether from
mercenary motives, or from their naturally pacific disposition, or from
a sense of their impotence; and the same intelligent resignation with
which, as we know, they accepted the supremacy of the great Egyptian
empire, was doubtless displayed in earlier centuries in their submission
to the Babylonians. Their records show that they did not accept this
state of things merely through cowardice or indolence, for they are
represented as ready to rebel and shake off the yoke of their foreign
master when they found it incompatible with their practical interests.
But their resort to war was exceptional; they generally preferred to
submit to the powers that be, and to accept from them as if on lease the
strip of coast-line at the base of the Lebanon, which served as a site
for their warehouses and dockyards. Thus they did not find the yoke of
the stranger irksome--the sea opening up to them a realm of freedom
and independence which compensated them for the limitations of both
territory and liberty imposed upon them at home.

The epoch which was marked by their first venture on the Mediterranean,
and the motives which led to it, were alike unknown to them. The gods
had taught them navigation, and from the beginning of things they had
taken to the sea as fishermen, or as explorers in search of new lands.*
They were not driven by poverty to leave their continental abode, or
inspired thereby with a zeal for distant cruises. They had at home
sufficient corn and wine, oil and fruits, to meet all their needs, and
even to administer to a life of luxury. And if they lacked cattle, the
abundance of fish within their reach compensated for the absence of
flesh-meat.

* According to one of the cosmogonies of Sanchoniathon,
Khusor, who has been identified with Hephsestos, was the
inventor of the fishing-boat, and was the first among men
and gods who taught navigation. According to another legend,
Melkarth showed the Tyrians how to make a raft from the
branches of a fig tree, while the construction of the first
ships is elsewhere ascribed to the _Cabiri_.

Nor was it the number of commodiously situated ports on their coast
which induced them to become a seafaring people, for their harbours were
badly protected for the most part, and offered no shelter when the
wind set in from the north, the rugged shore presenting little resource
against the wind and waves in