[
106]
I will now, therefore, pass from these records, and come to those
that belong to the Phoenicians, and concern our nation, and shall produce
attestations to what I have said out of them. There are then records among
the Tyrians that take in the history of many years, and these are public
writings, and are kept with great exactness, and include accounts of the
facts done among them, and such as concern their transactions with other
nations also, those I mean which were worth remembering. Therein it was
recorded that the temple was built by king Solomon at
Jerusalem, one hundred
forty-three years and eight months before the Tyrians built
Carthage; and
in their annals the building of our temple is related; for Hirom, the king
of
Tyre, was the friend of Solomon our king, and had such friendship transmitted
down to him from his forefathers. He thereupon was ambitious to contribute
to the splendor of this edifice of Solomon, and made him a present of one
hundred and twenty talents of gold. He also cut down the most excellent
timber out of that mountain which is called Libanus, and sent it to him
for adorning its roof. Solomon also not only made him many other presents,
by way of requital, but gave him a country in
Galilee also, that was called
Chabulon.
1
But there was another passion, a philosophic inclination of theirs, which
cemented the friendship that was betwixt them; for they sent mutual problems
to one another, with a desire to have them unriddled by each other; wherein
Solomon was superior to Hirom, as he was wiser than he in other respects:
and many of the epistles that passed between them are still preserved among
the Tyrians. Now, that this may not depend on my bare word, I will produce
for a witness Dius, one that is believed to have written the Phoenician
History after an accurate manner. This Dius, therefore, writes thus, in
his Histories of the Phoenicians: "Upon the death of Abibalus, his
son Hirom took the kingdom. This king raised banks at the eastern parts
of the city, and enlarged it; he also joined the temple of Jupiter Olympius,
which stood before in an island by itself, to the city, by raising a causeway
between them, and adorned that temple with donations of gold. He moreover
went up to Libanus, and had timber cut down for the building of temples.
They say further, that Solomon, when he was king of
Jerusalem, sent problems
to Hirom to be solved, and desired he would send others back for him to
solve, and that he who could not solve the problems proposed to him should
pay money to him that solved them. And when Hirom had agreed to the proposals,
but was not able to solve the problems, he was obliged to pay a great deal
of money, as a penalty for the same. As also they relate, that one·Abdemon,
a man of
Tyre, did solve the problems, and propose others which Solomon
could not solve, upon which he was obliged to repay a great deal of money
to Hirom." These things are attested to by Dius, and confirm what
we have said upon the same subjects before.