Editing Pygmalion of Tyre (section)

==Date==
Pygmalion's dates are derived from [[Josephus]]'s ''[[Against Apion]]'' i.18, where Josephus quotes the Phoenician historian [[Menander of Ephesus|Menander]] as follows:
<blockquote>Pygmalion . . .  lived fifty-six years,<ref>The copies of Josephus/Menander in the Codex Laurentianus, the old Latin version of Cassiodorus, and [[Theodotion]] give 56 years; copies of Eusebius's "Chronography" in Armenian, plus some Greek extracts of it, give 58 years. From Barnes, ''Studies'' 40, note n.</ref> and reigned forty-seven years. Now, in the seventh year of his reign, his sister fled away from him, and built the city of [[Carthage]] in Libya.</blockquote> 
Pygmalion's dates, if this citation is to be trusted, are thus dependent on the date of the founding of Carthage. Here ancient classical sources given two possibilities: 825 BCE or 814 BCE. The 814 date is derived from the Greek historian [[Timaeus (historian)|Timaeus]] ({{Circa|345}}–260 BCE), and is the more commonly accepted year. The 825 date is taken from the writings of [[Gnaeus Pompeius Trogus|Pompeius Trogus]] (1st century BCE), whose forty-four book ''Philippic History'' survives only in abridged form in the works of the Roman historian [[Justin (historian)|Justin]]. In a 1951 article, J. Liver argued that the 825 date has some credibility because, with it, the elapsed time between that date and the start of building of Solomon's Temple, given as 143 years and 8 months in Menander/Josephus, agrees very closely with the date of approximately 967 BCE for the start of Temple construction as derived from 1 Kings 6:1 (fourth year of [[Solomon]]) and the date given by most historians for the end of Solomon's forty-year reign, i.e. 932 or 931 BCE.<ref>J. Liver, "The Chronology of Tyre at the Beginning of the First Millennium B.C.", ''Israel Exploration Journal'' 3 (1953) 116–117.</ref> If, however, the starting place is 814 BCE, measuring back 143 or 144 years does not agree with this Biblical date.

Liver advanced a second reason to favor the 825 date, related to the inscription of [[Shalmaneser III]], king of Assyria, mentioned [[#Tribute of Balazeros (Baalimanzer) to Shalmaneser III|below]], where it was mentioned that philological studies have equated this Ba'li-manzer with Balazeros ([[Baal-Eser II]]), grandfather of Pygmalion. The best texts of Menander/Josephus give six years for Balazeros, followed by nine years for his son and successor Mattenos ([[Mattan I]]), making 22 years between the start of Balazeros's reign and the seventh year of Pygmalion. If these 22 years are measured back from 814 BCE, they fall short of the 841 date required for Balazeros's tribute to Shalmaneser. With the 825 date, however, Balazeros's last year would be approximately 841 BCE, the time of the tribute to Shalmaneser.

These two agreements, one with an Assyrian inscription and the other with a Biblical datum, have proved quite convincing to scholars such as J. M. Peñuela,<ref>Peñuela, "La Inscripción Asiria", (Part 1), 217–37 and (Part 2) ''Sefarad'' 14 (1954) 1–39.</ref> [[Frank Moore Cross|F. M. Cross]].,<ref name="Cross, Nora Stone, 17, n. 11"/> and William H. Barnes.<ref>Barnes, ''Studies'' 51–53.</ref> Peñuela points out that the following consideration reconciles the two dates for Carthage derived from classical authors: 825 BCE was the year that Dido fled Tyre, and she did not found Carthage until 11 years later, in 814 BCE. Josephus, citing Menander, says that "in the seventh year of [Pygmalion's] reign, his sister fled away from him, and built the city of Carthage in Libya" (''Against Apion'' i:18). There are two events mentioned here: the flight from Tyre and the founding of Carthage. The language used would suggest that it was the first of these events, Dido's flight, that took place in Pygmalion's seventh year. Between the two events the following took place: Dido and her ships sailed to Cyprus, where about 80 of the men with her took wives. Eventually the Tyrians arrived on the north coast of Africa, where they received permission to build on an island in the harbor of the place where Carthage was eventually to be built. Peñuela quotes Strabo to show that some time then elapsed before the founding of Carthage: "Carthage was not founded immediately. Indeed, a small island having been captured previously in the Carthaginian harbor, Dido settled there. She fortified the place, which she used as a citadel of war against the Africans, who kept her from the shore."<ref name="Strabo">Strabo (17:3 14–15), cited in Peñuela, "La Inscripción Asiria" Part 2, p. 29, note 167.</ref> Justin (18:5 10–17) also mentions the time on this island, which he names as Cothon, and says that Dido and her company built a circle of houses there.<ref name="Strabo" /> Eventually peace was made with the inhabitants on the mainland, and the Tyrians were given permission to build a city. Peñuela maintained that these various events between the departure from Tyre and the eventual rapprochement with the inhabitants on the mainland explain the eleven-year difference between Pompeius Trogus's date of 825 BCE and the 814 date derived from other classical authors for Carthage's founding.

This understanding of the chronology related to Dido and her company resulted in the following dates for Pygmalion, Dido, and their immediate relations, as derived from [[Frank Moore Cross|F. M. Cross]]<ref name="Cross, Nora Stone, 17, n. 11"/> and Wm. H. Barnes:<ref>Barnes, ''Studies'' 53.</ref>

*[[Baal-Eser II]] (Baʿl-mazzer II) 846–841 BCE
*[[Mattan I]] 840–832 BCE
*831 BCE: Pygmalion begins to reign
*825 BCE: [[Dido (Queen of Carthage)|Dido]] flees Tyre in 7th year of Pygmalion
*825 BCE and possibly some time thereafter: Dido and companions on [[Cyprus]]
*Between 825 BCE and 814 BCE: Tyrians build settlement on island of [[Cothon]]
*814 BCE: Dido founds Carthage on mainland
*785 BCE: Death of Pygmalion