Sidon
Sidon, Sidon, Phoenician city
Frieze-Dennison Vergil
- = Σιδών, ῶνος and όνος, Heb. and Phoen. a very ancient and celebrated Phoenician city, the mother-city of Tyre, now Saida, Mel. 1, 12, 2; Plin. 5, 19, 17, § 76; Just. 18, 3, 4; Cic. Att. 9, 9, 2; Luc. 3, 217 al.; abl. Sidone, Lucr. 6, 585; Ov. M. 4, 571; cf. acc. Sīdōna Verg. A. 1, 619; abl. Sīdŏne, Sil. 8, 438.—Hence,
- A Sīdŏnĭus, a, um, adj.
- 1 Of or belonging to Sidon, Sidonian: urbs, i.e. Sidon, Verg. A. 4, 545; cf. moenia, Ov. P. 1, 3, 77: amor, i. e. Jupiter's for Europa (of Sidon), Mart. 7, 32.—
- 2 Poet., Phoenician: raptus, i.e. of Europa, Stat. Th. 1, 5: rates, Ov. Tr. 4, 3, 2: hospes, i.e. Cadmus, id. M. 3, 129: Dido, Verg. A. 11, 74: nautae, Hor. Epod. 16, 59: murex, Tib. 3, 3, 18; cf. ostrum, Hor. Ep. 1, 10, 26; so, vestis, Prop. 2, 16 (3, 8), 55: chlamys, Verg. A. 4, 137: palla, Prop. 4 (5), 9, 47: mitra, id. 2, 29 (3, 27), 15 et saep.—
- 3 Carthaginian: duces, Sil. 1, 10: miles, id. 17, 213: cuspis, id. 5, 474.—
- 4 Because Thebes, in Boeotia, was said to have been founded by Cadmus, Theban: Sidoniae comites, i. e. Ismenides, Ov. M. 4, 542: turres, Stat. Th. 7, 443.—Subst plur.: Sīdō̆nĭi, ōrum, m., the Sidonians, Sall. J. 78, 1; and poet., Phoenicians, Ov. F. 3, 108.—*
- B Sīdōnĭ-cus, a, um, adj., of or belonging to Sidon, Sidonian, Sall. J. 78, 4.—
- C Sīdō̆nis, ĭdis, adj. f., Sidonian; poet., Phoenician: tellus, i.e. Phoenicia, Ov. M. 2, 840: concha, i.e. purple, id. ib. 10, 267.—More freq. subst., a Sidonian or Phoenician woman; of Europa, Ov. A. A. 3, 252; id. F. 5, 610; 5, 617; Stat. Th. 9, 334.—Of Dido, Ov. M. 14, 80.—Of Anna, Ov. F. 3, 649; Sil. 8, 70: Sīdōnĭda, id. 8, 194.
SIDON (Σιδών: Eth. Σιδώνιος,), 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. 10.15; J. AJ), and is mentioned by Moses as the northern extremity of the Canaanitish settlements, as Gaza was the southernmost (Gen. 10.19); and in the blessing of Jacob it is said of Zebulun his border shall be unto Sidon( 49.13). At the time of the Eisodus of the children of Israel, it was already distinguished by the appellation of the Great( Josh. 11.8; compare in LXX. ver. 2), and was in the extreme north border which was drawn from Mount Hermon (called Mount Hor in Num. 34.7) 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. 19.28, 29.) It was one of several cities from which the Israelites did not disposses the old inhabitants. (Judg. 1.31.)
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. 5.3.1). 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 (16.2.22, 24). Herodotus's account of the origin of the race has been given under PHOENICIA [607b.], 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;b ut this is an error corrected by Michaelis and Gesenius (Lex. s. v. HEBREW), who derive it from HEBREW to hunt or snareg ame, 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. 4. p. 43.) Pliny, who mentions it as artifex vitri Thebarumque que Boeotiarmn parens,p laces Sarepta et Ornithon oppidab etween it and Tyre (5.19). 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 (p. 584). Scylax mentions the closed harbour of Sidon (λιμὴν κλειτός, 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,h e 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 (16. 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. (Ritter, l. c. p. 43, &c.) COIN OF SIDON.
(Σιδών, 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. See Phoenice.
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.
BIBLIOGRAPHYE. Renan, Mission de Phénicie (1864-74) MPI; Hamdi Bey & T. Reinech, Une nécropole royale à Sidon (1892) MPI; M. Meurdrac & L. Albanese, “A travers les nécropoles gréco-romaines de Sidon,” BMBeyrouth 2 (1938); 3 (1939); A. Poidebard & J. Lauffray, Sidon, Aménagements antiques du port de Saïda (1951) MPI; E. Kukahn, Anthropoide Sarkophage in Beyrouth und Geschichte diesen Sidonischen Sarkophagkunst (1955) I; I. Kleemann, “Der Satrapensarkophag aus Sidon,” IstForsch 20 (1958) I; M. Dunand, “Rapport préliminaire sur les fouilles de Sidon,” BMBeyrouth 19 (1966); 20 (1967) I; R. Saidah, “Chronique, F. Fouilles de Sidon,” ibid.
J.-P. REY-COQUAIS- Paris and Helen there: Hdt. 2.116, Apollod. E.3.3
- Sidon attacked by Apries: Hdt. 2.161
- Democedes' voyage from Sidon: Hdt. 3.136
- speed of Sidonian ships: Hdt. 7.44
- in Xerxes' fleet: Hdt. 7.96, Hdt. 7.99
- Xerxes' Sidonian ship: Hdt. 7.100, Hdt. 7.128
- place of honour of Sidonian king in Xerxes' council: Hdt. 8.67
- man of Sidon discusses nature of Aesculapius with Pausanias: Paus. 7.23.7ff.