It is thought that Hiram was engaged in one war of some importance.  Menander tells us, according to the present text of Josephus,[14107] that the “Tityi” revolted from him, and refused any longer to pay him tribute, whereupon he made an expedition against them, and succeeded in compelling them to submit to his authority.  As the “Tityi” are an unknown people, conjecture has been busy in suggesting other names,[14108] and critics are now of the opinion that the original word used by Menander was not “Tityi,” but “Itykaei.”  The “Itykaei” are the people of Utica:  and, if this emendation be accepted,[14109] we must regard Hiram as having had to crush a most important and dangerous rebellion.  Utica, previously to the foundation of Carthage, was by far the most important of all the mid-African colonies, and her successful revolt would probably have meant to Tyre the loss of the greater portion, if not the whole, of those valuable settlements.  A rival to her power would have sprung up in the West, which would have crippled her commerce in that quarter, and checked her colonising energy.  She would have suffered thus early more than she did four hundred years later by the great development of the power of Carthage; would have lost a large portion of her prestige; and have entered on the period of her decline when she had but lately obtained a commanding position.  Hiram’s energy diverted these evils:  he did not choose that his kingdom should be dismembered, if he could anyhow help it; and, offering a firm and strenuous opposition to the revolt, he succeeded in crushing it, and maintaining the unity of the empire.

The brilliant reign of Hiram, which covered the space of forty-three years, was not followed, like that of Solomon, by any immediate troubles, either foreign or domestic.  He had given his people, either at home or abroad, constant employment; he had consulted their convenience in the enlargement of his capital; he had enriched them, and gratified their love of adventure, by his commercial enterprises; he had maintained their prestige by rivetting their yoke upon a subject state; he had probably pleased them by the temples and other public buildings with which he had adorned and beautified their city.  Accordingly, he went down to the grave in peace; and not only so, but left his dynasty firmly established in power.  His son, Baal-azar or Baleazar, who was thirty-six years of age, succeeded him, and held the throne for seven years, when he died a natural death.[14110] Abd-Ashtoreth (Abdastartus), the fourth monarch of the house, then ascended the throne, at the age of twenty, and reigned for nine years before any troubles broke out.  Then, however, a time of disturbance supervened.  Four of his foster-brothers conspired against Abd-Ashtoreth, and murdered him.  The eldest of them seized the throne, and maintained himself upon it for twelve years, when Astartus, perhaps a son of Baal-azar, became king, and restored the line of Hiram.  He, too,