Internal convulsion, moreover, followed upon external decline.  Within ten years of the death of Ithobal, the monarchy came to an end by a revolution,[14239] which substituted for Kings Suffetes or Shophetim, “judges,” officers of an inferior status, whose tenure of office was not very assured.  Ecnibal, the son of Baslach, the first judge, held the position for no more than two months; Chelbes, the son of Abdaeus, who followed him, ruled for ten months; Abbarus, a high priest, probably of Melkarth, for three months.  Then, apparently to weaken the office, it was shared between two, as at Carthage, and Mytgon (perhaps Mattan), together with Ger-ashtoreth, the son of Abd-elim, judged Tyre for six years.  But the partisans of monarchy were now recovering strength; and the reign of a king, Balator, was intruded at some point in the course of the six years’ judgeship.  Judges were then abolished by a popular movement, and kings of the old stock restored.  The Tyrians sent to Babylon for a certain Merbal, who must have been either a refugee or a hostage at the court of Neriglissar.  He was allowed to return to Tyre, and, being confirmed in the sovereignty, reigned four years.  His brother, Eirom, or Hiram, succeeded him, and was still upon the throne when the Empire of Babylon came to an end by the victory of Cyrus over Nabonidus (B.C. 538).

Phoenicia under the Babylonian rule was exceptionally weak.  She had to submit to attacks from Egypt under Apries, which fell probably in the reign of Baal over Tyre, about B.C. 565.  She had also to submit to the loss of Cyprus under Amasis,[14240] probably about B.C. 540, or a little earlier, when the power of Babylon was rapidly declining.  She had been, from first to last, an unwilling tributary of the Great Empire on the Lower Euphrates, and was perhaps not sorry to see that empire go down before the rising power of Persia.  Under the circumstances she would view any chance as likely to advance her interests, and times of disturbance and unsettlement gave her the best chance of obtaining a temporary independence.  From B.C. 538 to B.C. 528 or 527 she seems to have enjoyed one of these rare intervals of autonomy.  Egypt, content with having annexed Cyprus, did not trouble her; Persia, engaged in wars in the far East,[14241] made as yet no claim to her allegiance.  In peace and tranquillity she pursued her commercial career, covered the seas with her merchant vessels, and the land-routes of trade with her caravans, repaired the damages inflicted by Nebuchadnezzar on her cities; maintained, if she did not even increase, her naval strength, and waited patiently to see what course events would take now that Babylon was destroyed, and a new and hitherto unknown power was about to assume the first position among the nations of the earth.

5.  Phoenicia under the Persians (B.C. 528-333)