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History
This occasion
arose with the arrival of Alexander the Great in Phoenicia. Alexander’s victory over
the Persian king at Issus in 333 B.C. and the latter’s flight opened the gates of
Asia for the Macedonian conqueror. The Phoenician cities were faced by a difficult choice,
either to resist Alexander or allow him into their cities. The matter was complicated
further by the fact that several kings of Phoenicia at this time were at sea with the
Persian fleet. We learn that city after city welcomed Alexander and Sidon, in particular,
due to the city’s deep hatred of the Persians." Pyre alone refused to allow
Alexander enter their island fortress. Tripoli is not mentioned in this connection.
Perhaps due to its status as a federal or "open" city, Alexander passed by
without demanding its surrender. Top Page
Alexander’s untimely death in
323 B.C. with no provision for his succession paved the way for the break-up of his
empire. Dissension broke out among his generals who decided to divide his possessions
between themselves. Alexander’s close comrade-in-arms Ptolemy seized Egypt and
founded the dynasty of the Lagids. Phoenicia was given to Laomedon of Mitylene. In a swift
move Ptolemy made an attack on Laomedon and annexed Phoenicia to his own possessions.
Antigonus, governor of Greater Phyrgia, was yet another general who had served under
Alexander. In the division of the provinces he received Pamphylia and Lycia to his
command. Fired by ambition he was resolved to set himself up as lord of all Asia, claiming
he was the heir to Alexander and assumed the title of king. He was faced by a coalition of
Cassander in Macedon, Lysimachus in Thrace and Ptolemy in Egypt and Palestine. An
ultimatum was delivered to Antigonus, somewhere in north Syria at the time, by the
coalition demanding a share of his empire. This he refused to consider and his next move
in the power struggle was to deal with his enemies one at a time and first to attack
Ptolemy at sea. So he marched to the Phoenician seaboard in order to acquire a much-needed
naval force. Ptolemy was holding all the ships from Phoenicia and their crews in Egypt and
Antigonus had few ships at hand. He camped before Tyre and called together all the kings
of the Phoenician cities and the vlceroys of Syria demanding that they assist him in
building ships. The account of this important ship -building operation carried out in the
shipyards of Tripolis, Byblos and Sidon has been brought down to us by Diodorus. Top Page
He (Antigonus) himself collected
wood cutters, sawyers, and shipwrights from all sides and carried wood to the sea from
Lebanon. There were eight thousand men employed in cutting and sawing the timber and one
thousand pair of draught animals in transporting it. This mountain range extends along the
territory of Tripolis, Byblos and Sidon, and is covered with cedar and cypress trees of
wonderful beauty and size. He established three shipyards in Phoenicia — at Tripolis,
Byblos and Sidon — and a fourth in Cilicia, the timber for which was brought from
Mount Taurus.Top Page
This account of Diodorus is probably based on
Hieronymous of Cardia who after 316 was a follower of Antigonus.In all probability
Hieronymous was present at the time of the ship -building operation and the passage rests
on his eye-witness account. It emphasizes the importance of Tripolis, Byblos and Sidon as
naval shipyards during this period and also gives one of the reasons for the deforestation
of the mountains of Lebanon —the periodic mass cutting of timber for naval needs. It
also implies that Tripolis, Byblos and Sidon were in possession of territory outside the
city proper.and he established his own garrison in the city. Demetrius, the son of
Antigonus, ruled Phoenicia until 287 B.C. when it once again passed over to Ptolemy. It
remained a dependency of the Ptolemies for neatly seventy years.
Seleucus, founder of a line of kings who reigned in
Asia Minor and Syria from 312 to 65 B.C., was a young man of twenty-three when he
accompanied Alexander into Asia. In the division of Alexander’s empire the Babylonian
satrapy fell to Seleucus but in 316 when Antigonus became master of the eastern provinces,
Seleucus fled to Egypt. In the war that followed between Antigonus and the other
Macedonian kings, Seleucus allied himself with Ptolemy. The victory won by Ptolemy at Gaza
in 312 opened the way for Seleucus’ return to the East. His return to Babylon in the
same year was afterward officially recognized as the beginning of the Seleucid empire.
philosophers, farmers and sailors in ancient ‘times came to regard them as different
individual things. Boreas, the North Wind, brought cold air and storm, Notos, the
sirocco, brought heat and sand from the desert and .Epeliotes, the East Wind, blew
from Phoenicia: Top Page
In Tripolis of Phoenicia this wind is called Potameus;
it blows from a plain like a great threshing-floor which is enclosed by Mount Libanos
and Bargylos, hence its name Potameus. It raises storms on the harbor of
Poseideion. Poseideion (Poseidonion) was an ancient Greek commercial enclave
established on the Syrian coast at the mouth of the Orontes. A distance of several hundred
kilometers separates this harbor from Tripoli. Top Page
Historical References
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