600; but the forward movement of the twelfth century seems to have been distinctly Tyrian, and to have been one of the results of the new position in which she was placed by the sudden collapse of her elder sister, Sidon.
According to some,[1446] Tyre, during the early period of her supremacy, was under the government of _shophetim_, or "judges;" but the general usage of the Phoenician cities makes against this supposition.

Philo in his "Origines of Phoenicia" speaks constantly of kings,[1447] but never of judges.

We hear of a king, Abd-Baal, at Berytus[1448] about B.C.
1300.

Sidonian kings are mentioned in connection with the myth of Europa.[1449] The cities founded by the Phoenicians in Cyprus are always under monarchical rule.[1450] Tyre itself, when its history first presents itself to us in any detail, is governed by a king.[1451] All that can be urged on the other side is, that we know of no Tyrian king by name until about B.C.

1050; and that, if there had been earlier kings, it might have been expected that some record of them would have come down to us.