1252)--First notable result, the colonisation of Gades (B.C.

1130)--Other colonies of about this period--Extension of Phoenician commerce--Tyre ruled by kings--Abi-Baal--Hiram--Hiram's dealings with Solomon--His improvement of his own capital-- His opinion of "the land of Cabul"-- His joint trade with the Israelites--His war with Utica--Successors of Hiram--Time of disturbance--Reign of Ithobal--of Badezor--of Matgen--of Pygmalion--Founding of Carthage--First contact of Phoenicia with Assyria--Submission of Phoenicia, B.C.

877.
Tyre was noted as a "strong city" as early as the time of Joshua,[1440] and was probably inferior only to Sidon, or to Sidon and Aradus, during the period of Sidonian ascendancy.

It is mentioned in the "Travels of a Mohar" (about B.C.

1350) as "a port, richer in fish than in sands."[1441] The tradition was, that it acquired its predominance and pre-eminence from the accession of the Sidonian population, which fled thither by sea, when no longer able to resist the forces of Ascalon.[1442] We do not find it, however, attaining to any great distinction or notoriety, until more than a century later, when it distinguishes itself by the colonisation of Gades (about B.C.