Listed 6 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "SIDON Ancient city LEBANON" .
Sidon (Sidon: Eth. Sidonios,), a very ancient and important maritime
city of Phoenicia, which, according to Josephus, derived its origin and name from
Sidon, the firstborn son of Canaan (Gen. x. 15; Joseph. Ant. i. 6. § 2), and is
mentioned by Moses as the northern extremity of the Canaanitish settlements, as
Gaza was the southernmost (Gen. x. 19); and in the blessing of Jacob it is said
of Zebulun his border shall be unto Sidon (xlix. 13). At the time of the Eisodus
of the children of Israel, it was already distinguished by the appellation of
the Great (Josh. xi. 8; compare in LXX. ver. 2), and was in the extreme north
border which was drawn from Mount Hermon (called Mount Hor in Num. xxxiv. 7) on
the east to Great Sidon, where it is mentioned in the border of the tribe of Asher,
as also is the strong city of Tyre. (Josh. xix. 28, 29.) It was one of several
cities from which the Israelites did not disposses the old inhabitants. (Judg.
i. 31.)
As the origin of this ancient city, its history, and manufactures,
have been noticed under Phoenicia, it only remains in this place to speak of its
geographical position and relations so far as they either serve to illustrate,
or are illustrated by, its history.
It is stated by Josephus to have been a day's journey from the site
of Dan, afterwards Paneas (Ant. v. 3. § 1). Strabo places it 400 stadia S. of
Berytus, 200 N. of Tyre, and describes it as situated on a fair haven of the continent.
He does not attempt to settle the questions between the rival cities, but remarks
that while Sidon is most celebrated by the poets (of whom Homer does not so much
as name Tyre), the colonists in Africa and Spain, even beyond the Pillars of Hercules,
showed more honour to Tyre (xvi. 2. § 22, 24). Herodotus's account of the origin
of the race has been given under Phoenicia, and is shown to be in accordance with
that of other writers. Justin follows it, but gives a different etymology of the
name: Condita urbe, quam a piscium uberitate Sidona appellaverunt, nam piscem
Phoenices Sidon vocant; but this is an error corrected by Michaelis and Gesenius
(Lex. s. v. Hebrew), who derive it from Hebrew to hunt or snare game, birds, fish,
&c., indifferently, so that the town must have derived its name from the occupation
of the inhabitants as fishers, and not from the abundance of fish; and Ritter
refers to the parallel case of Beth saida on the sea of Tiberias. (Erdkunde, Syrien,
vol. iv. p. 43.) Pliny, who mentions it as artifex vitri Thebarumque que Boeotiarmn
parens, places Sarepta et Ornithon oppida between it and Tyre (v. 19). It is reckoned
xxx. M. P. from Berytus, xxiv. from Tyre, in the Itinerary of Antoninus (p. 149).
But the Itinerarium Hierosolymitanum reckons it xxviii. from Berytus, placing
Heldua and Parphirion between. Scylax mentions the closed harbour of Sidon (limen
kleitos, p. 42, ed. Hudson), which is more fully described by a later writer,
Achilles Tatius (circ. A.D. 500), who represents Sidon as situated on the Assyrian
sea, itself the metropolis of the Phoenicians, whose citizens were the ancestors
of the Thebans. A double harbour shelters the sea in a wide gulf; for where the
bay is covered on the right hand side, a second mouth has been formed, through
which the water again enters, opening into what may be regarded as a harbour of
the harbour. In this inner basin, the vessels could lie securely during the winter,
while the outer one served for the summer. (Cited by Reland, Palaes. p. 1012).
This inner port Reland conjectures, with great probability, is the closed port
of Scylax, and to be identified with the second harbour described by Strabo at
Tyre, where he says there was one closed and another open harbour, called the
Egyptian. The best account of the site is given by Pococke. It was situated, he
says, on a rising ground, defended by the sea on the north and west. The present
city is mostly on the north side of the hill. The old city seems to have extended
further east, as may be judged from the foundations of a thick wall, that extends
from the sea to the east; on the south it was probably bounded by a rivulet, the
large bed of which might serve for a natural fosse; as another might which is
on the north side, if the city extended so far, as some seem to think it did,
and that it stretched to the east as far as the high hill, which is about three
quarters of a mile from the present town. ... On the north side of the town, there
are great ruins of a fine fort, the walls of which were built with very large
stones, 12 feet in length, which is the thickness of the wall; and some are 11
feet broad, and 5 deep. The harbour is now choked up. ... This harbour seems to
be the minor port mentioned by Strabo (xvi. p. 756) for the winter; the outer
one probably being to the north in the open sea between Sidon and Tyre (?), where
the shipping rides in safety during the summer season. (Observations on Palestine,
p. 86.) The sepulchral grots are cut in the rock at the foot of the hills; and
some of them are adorned with pilasters, and handsomely painted.
The territory of the Sidonians, originally circumscribed towards the
north by the proximity of the hostile Gibbites, extended southwards to the tribe
of Zebulon, and Mount Carmel; but was afterwards limited in this direction also
by the growing power of their rivals the Tyrians.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
(Sidon, Old Test. Zidon). Now Saida; a city of Phoenicia, long
the most powerful of that country's towns. It stood in a plain about a mile from
the Mediterranean Sea, and some twenty miles north of Tyre, and with a double
harbour of considerable extent, now filled with sand. Until Tyre wrested from
it the maritime supremacy, it was the greatest commercial city of the Phoenicians.
When Xerxes invaded Greece, the people of Sidon furnished his expedition with
the best ships in the whole fleet, so that the king of Sidon had the chief place
in the council of the Persian king. The city was burned at the time of its revolt
against Artaxerxes III. (B.C. 351), but was rebuilt, and later fell with the whole
of Phoenicia under the control of the Romans.
Maritime city and Phoenician metropolis celebrated by Homer, subjected
to Egyptian influence, and vassal of the Achaemenids. Hellenism reached Sidon
in the 5th c. B.C., it was conquered by Evagoras of Cyprus in the 4th c., and
then by Alexander the Great, who made Abdelonymus, the gardener, king. It was
the naval shipyard of the Diadochos Antigonus. Successively ruled by the Lagids,
the Seleucids, and the Romans, Sidon always remained an important town.
The mediaeval and modern city covers the ancient town, which occupied
a huge mound, the accumulation of millennia. It extended from the Land Castle
to the W to the gardens on the E, on the other side of the wide modern street.
Only the SE corner of the Hellenistic rampart is known. A late Latin inscription
attributes the construction of the rampart facing the sea to the Diadochos Antigonus.
Recent excavations have found remains of a Roman theater on the N flank of the
castle hill. The palace of the Achaemenid viceroys has been sought farther N,
because of the discovery of marble fragments from bases and columns, and especially
of a large capital with foreparts of two kneeling bulls (now in the Beirut museum).
Clandestine excavations in the 19th c. uncovered a dozen fine Mithraic statues
from a Mithraeum of the 4th c. A.D. (now in the Louvre). On the W side of the
mound deposits of murex shells (which form an actual hill farther S) indicate
workshops where purple dye was manufactured.
Sidon had two ports, one to the S in a big cove, the other to the
N: the inner port was on the site of the modern one, and efficient dredging kept
it from silting up; the outer port was protected by a jetty and by the islet of
the Sea Castle, the open roadstead by a mole and another rocky islet.
In the valley of the Nahr el-Awali, N of the town (the ancient river
Bostrenus), the sanctuary of Eshmun (a healing god assimilated to Asklepios) stood
in the middle of orchards which recall the sacred wood mentioned by Strabo. Phoenician
inscriptions date to the Persian period the high, massive walls with bosses which
support two large terraces built on the slope. The terraces formed the podium
of a temple which has disappeared. Parts of a monumental altar about 7 m high
have been found near the NW corner of this podium, and many installations, dating
from the 4th c. B.C. to Byzantine times, were built against its N wall. Through
all of them runs a network of canals and conduits which provided running water
for the nymphaeum, the sacred basins, and therapeutic pools.
At a lower level, to the E, is a large chapel with a wide bay to the
N. The floor is a basin paved with thick slabs. To the S against the back wall
a stone throne, flanked by winged lions, stands on a high monolithic base. A sculptured
frieze depicts a hunting scene on the wall above the throne; on the side wall
to the right it shows standing figures. This chapel of Sidonian Astarte may date
to the 4th c. B.C.
A monumental stairway of the 1st c. A.D. stands against the middle
of the N wall of the podium. Somewhat in front and W of this stairway, a cubic
altar was built in the 2d c., flanked to E and W by staircases rising to half
its height. Farther W a marble base adorned with winged lions, and dating to the
2d c. B.C. at the latest, was reused in a podium of Roman date. Still farther
W is an Achaemenid or Early Hellenistic capital with four foreparts of bulls,
enclosed in a sort of chapel supported by a masonry base of the 4th c. A.D. Some
columns of a huge portico built around the swimming pools and cult installations
in the 3d c. A.D. have survived, and many fragments of sculpture (Hellenistic
putti playing with animals), dating from the 5th c. B.C. to the 2d c. A.D., have
been found in a favissa. Other statues of children and athletes are now in the
Chapel of Astarte.
The necropolis of Ayaa, E of the town, has yielded decorated marble
sarcophagi of the end of the Classical and beginning of the Hellenistic period,
called the sarcophagi of Alexander, the Lycian, the Satrap, and the Weeping Women
(now in the Istanbul museum). Anthropoid sarcophagi of Greek marble have been
found in other necropoleis, particularly at Ain el-Hilwe. The collection in the
Beirut museum illustrates the diversity of types, and the transition from Oriental
to Greek influence from the middle of the 5th c. to the 4th c. B.C. Besides the
well-known sarcophagus of king Eshmunezar, the necropolis of Mogharet-Abloun to
the S has produced a limestone sarcophagus of Roman date with an exact picture
of a ship (Beirut museum) and several Hellenistic painted stelai depicting mercenaries
(Istanbul museum). Other more recent painted and stuccoed stelai are also in the
Beirut museum.
Small cippi of Roman date, with their small columns characteristically
adorned with garlands and their cubic bases with epitaphs, are in museums in Beirut,
Istanbul, and Paris. Tombs and hypogaea have produced much gold and silver jewelry,
and particularly a number of the glass vases which were a specialty of Sidon at
the beginning of the Roman period.
J. P. Rey-Coquais, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
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