of so large a force filled Tennes with dismay and despair.  Successful resistance was, he thought, impossible; and with a selfishness and a cowardice that must ever make him rank among the most infamous of men, he resolved, if possible, to purchase his own pardon of the King by delivering to his vengeance the entire body of his fellow-countrymen.  Accordingly, after handing over to him a hundred of the principal citizens, who were immediately transfixed with javelins, he concerted measures with Mentor for receiving the Persians within the walls.  While the arrangements were proceeding, five hundred of the remaining citizens issued forth from one of the gates of the town, with boughs of supplication, as a deputation to implore the mercy of Ochus, but only to suffer the same fate as their fellow-townsmen.  The Persians were then received within the walls; but the citizens, understanding what their fate was to be, resolved to anticipate it.  They had already burnt their ships, to prevent any desertion.  Now they shut themselves up, with their wives and children, in their houses, and applying the torch to their dwellings lighted up a general conflagration.  More than forty thousand persons perished in the flames.  Ochus sold the ruins at a high price to speculators, who calculated on reimbursing themselves by the treasures which they might dig out from among the ashes.  As for Tennes, it is satisfactory to find that a just vengeance overtook him.  The treachery which he had employed towards others was shown also to himself.  Ochus, who had given him a solemn promise that he would spare his life, no sooner found that there was nothing more to be gained by letting him live, than he relentlessly put him to death.[14342]

No further resistance was made by the Phoenician cities.  Ochus marched on against Egypt and effected its reconquest.[14343] The Cyprian revolt was put down by the Prince of Caria, Istricus.[14344] A calm, prelude to the coming storm, settled down upon Persia; and Phoenicia participated in the general tranquillity.  The various communities, exhausted by their recent efforts, and disappointed with the result, laid aside their political aspirations, and fell back upon their commercial instincts.  Trade once more flourished.  Sidon rose again from her ashes, and recovered a certain amount of prosperity.  She held the coast from Leontopolis to Ornithonpolis, and possessed also the dependency of Dor;[14345] but she had lost Sarepta to Tyre,[14346] which stepped into the foremost place among the cities on her fall, and retained it until destroyed by Alexander.  The other towns which still continued to be of some importance were Aradus, and Gebal or Byblus.  These cities, like Tyre and Sidon, retained their native kings,[14347] who ruled their several states with little interference from the Persians.  The line of monarchs may be traced at Sidon for five generations, from the first Esmunazar, who probably reigned about B.C. 460-440, through three generations and four kings,