Such an extension of power, and the acquisition of sources of wealth
so boundless, excited the envy of other nations.
The Greeks are said to have been in the Iberian peninsula long
before the fall of Troy, where they came with a fleet from Zante, in
the Ionian Sea, and in memory of that place, called the city they
founded Zacynthus, which name in time became Saguntum. Now they
sent more expeditions and founded more cities on the Spanish coast; and
the Babylonians, and the Assyrians, and, at a later time, the Persians
and the Greeks, all took up arms against these insatiate traders.
Phenician supremacy was not easily maintained with so many jealous
rivals in the field, and it was rudely shaken in 850 B.C., when
“The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold,
And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold.”
and the Phenician power was partially broken at its source in the
East.
It is with thrilling interest that we read Isaiah's prophecy of the
destruction of Tyre, which was written at this very time. For the
Phenicians were the Canaanites of Bible history, and “Hiram King
of Tyre” was their king; and his “navy,” which, together with Solomon's
“came once in three years from Tarshish,” was their navy; and
Tarshish was none other than Tartessus, their own province,
just beyond Gibraltar on the Spanish coast. Nor is it at all improbable
that Spanish gold was used to adorn the temple which the great Solomon
was building. (I Kings ix., x.) Shakspere, who says all things better
than anyone else, makes Othello find in the fatal handkerchief
“confirmation strong as proofs from holy writ.” Where can be found
“confirmation” stronger than these “proofs from holy writ”? And where a
more magnificent picture of the luxury, the sumptuous Oriental splendor
of this nation at that period, than in Ezekiel, chapters xxvii.,
xxviii.? What an eloquent apostrophe to Tyre—“thou that art situate at
the entry of the sea, a merchant of the people, for many isles.”—“With thy wisdom and with thine understanding thou hast gotten thee
riches,” and, “by thy great wisdom and by thy traffick hast thou
increased, and thine heart is lifted up.” And then follows the terrible
arraignment—“because of the iniquity of thy traffick.” And then
the final prediction of ruin—“I will bring thee to ashes upon the
earth”; “thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any
more.” Where in any literature can we find such lurid splendor of
description, and such a powerful appeal to the imagination of the
reader! And where could the student of history find a more graphic and
accurate picture of a vanished civilization!
In 850 B.C., the same year in which the Assyrians partly subjugated
the Phenicians in the East, the city of Carthage was founded upon the
north coast of Africa, and there commenced a movement, with that city
as its center, which drew together all their scattered possessions into
a Punic confederacy. This was composed of the islands of Sardinia,
Corsica, part of Sicily, the Balearic Isles, and the cities and
colonies upon the Spanish Peninsula and African coast. As the power of
this confederacy expands, the name Phenician passes away and that of
Carthaginian takes its place in history.
Carthage became a mighty city, and controlled with a strong hand the
scattered empire which had been planted by the Syrian tradesmen.
Carthaginian merchants and miners were in Tartessus, and were planting
cities and colonies throughout the peninsula, and a torrent of
Carthaginian life was thus pouring into Spain for many hundred years,
and the blood of the two races must have freely mingled.
There are memorials of this time now existing, not only in Phenician
coins, medals, and ruins, but in the names of the cities. Barcelona, named after the powerful family of Barca in Carthage, to which
Hannibal belonged. Carthagena, a memorial of Carthage, which
meant “the city”; and even Cordova is traced to its primitive
form,—Kartah-duba,—meaning “an important city.” While Isabella, the name most famous in Spanish annals, has a still greater antiquity;
and was none other than Jezebel—after the beautiful daughter of the
King of Sidon (the “Zidoneans“), who married Ahab, and lured him
to his downfall. And we are told that this wicked siren whose dreadful
fate Elijah foretold, was cousin to Dido, she who Virgil tells us “wept
in silence” for the faithless Æneas. With what a strange thrill do we
find these threads of association between history sacred and profane,
and both mingled with the modern history of Spain.
But Phenicia, for the “iniquity of her traffick,” was doomed. The
roots of this old Asiatic tree had been slowly and surely perishing,
while her branches in the West were expanding. In the year 332 B.C. the
siege and destruction of Tyre, predicted five hundred years before by
Isaiah, was accomplished by Alexander the Great, and the words of the
prophet found their complete fulfillment—that the people of Tarshish
should find no city, no port, no welcome, when they came back to Syria!
But on the northern coast of the Mediterranean there was another
power which was waxing, while the Carthaginian was waning. The
occupation of the young Roman Republic was not trade, but conquest. A
bitter enmity existed between the two nations. Rome was determined to
break this grasping old Asiatic confederacy and to drive it out of
Europe. The Spanish Peninsula she knew little about, but the rich
islands near her own coast—they must be hers.
When, after the first Punic war (264-241 B.C.), the Carthaginians
saw Sardinia and Sicily torn from them, Hamilcar, their great general,
determined upon a plan of vengeance which should make of Italy a Punic
province. His people were strong upon the sea, but for this war of
invasion they must have an army, too. So he conceived the idea of
making Spain the basis of his military operations, and recruiting an
immense army from the Iberian Peninsula.