Carthage Blog 2 - Tyre
- Scot Stoddard
- Jun 11
- 10 min read
Tyre, the ancient Phoenician City State
Tyre is one of the oldest continually-inhabited cities in the world and one of the earliest Phoenician city states. It is the home of Europa, a Phoenician princess after whom the continent of Europe was named. She was also the mother of King MInos of Crete and the wife of Zeus.
Tyre was also the home of the founder of Carthage, Dido, whom I talked about in Blog Post 1.
Tyre is a city located on the Mediterranean Sea, on the west coast of modern day Lebanon. The city today contains many ancient Phoenician ruins, including the famous Tyre Hippodrome, a stadium that was used for social gatherings, ceremonies and especially chariot racing! It is now a World Heritage site. Tyre was made up of two urban centers, one on an island and an associated urban center on the mainland. They eventually became connected; more on that later! The city had two major ports, one facing Sidon to the north, which still exists, and the second facing south towards Egypt, or the "Egyptian Port", which archeologist believe they have recently discovered. Tyre was a major hub for transportation, merchant fleets and trading on the Mediterranean.
History and background
Tyre became a major Phoenician city state somewhere between the 9th and 6th centuries BC and went on to spawn many other Phoenician city states around the Mediterranean, including Carthage, the subject of this album, Gadir (Track 6), and Leptis Magna.
Historians believe the original settlers of Tyre came from the nearby city of Sidon in search of a place to establish a new port city, and the initial part of the city was built on the mainland starting around 2,750 BC. It rose to become the leading Phoenician city around 969 BC and is credited with many innovations in shipping, trade, industry, culture, agriculture and government. The Tyrian Phoenicians trade network was based on the two ports I mentioned above, and many of its innovations in culture, politics and economics became the basis for classic Western civilizations.
Greek historians recorded and supported the myth that Tyre was actually founded by the Phoenician deity Melqart (Track 5), whom they claim built the city for the mermaid Tyros and named it after her!
Tyre was under Egyptian rule as early as the 17th century BC and was named at that time Melqart. The name Tyre, however, was found on monuments from around 1,300 BC when the Phoenicians came into prominence. At that time, Phoenicia became known to outsiders and the Phoenicians as Sidonia or Tyria. Tyre's maritime dominance was then so strong that the Mediterranean Sea became known as the Tyrian Sea. Tyre established its dominance through trade, as opposed to military action, and it has been accredited for spreading its mercantile practices, as well as its numerical system and alphabet. As space on the island was limited, masons and builder became skilled in constructing multi-storied buildings, and the Tyrians excelled in masonry, metalworking and ship building, as well. Tyre grew and flourished in this time as a major trade hub and cultural center. Until ....
The Persians took over!
The Achaemenid Empire of King Cyrus the Great took control over the region in 539 BC. He is not to be confused with the "lethargic performance of Darius III", which is kind of an inside joke around here, due to other research on other civilizations; namely, the Persians. Ask me about it sometime, if you'd like. Actually, we're going to get to Darius III, too; he's relevant in a way.
Anyway, back on topic, the Persians divided Phoenicia into four major regions, and they all flourished through the production of sailing vessels and Tyrian Purple (Track 4), which had been bolstering the Phoenician economy throughout time. Tyrian Purple is a famous fabric dye produced by the Phoenicians as early as 1,200 BC that was fabricated by extracting enzymes from certain sea snails. The fabric became widely sought-after and, since it was expensive to produce, it was costly, and mostly only the rich could afford it, giving it the alternative name "Royal Purple". Legend has it that it was discovered by the deity Melqart when, walking along a beach, his dog bit into a snail and it left the dog's mouth stained purple!
However, Persian control over the region was rather short-lived. As along came Alexander the Great and the Greeks.
The Greeks took over!
Led by Alexander the Great, the Greeks had defeated the Persian King Darius III (there he is) in 333 BC during the Battle of Arbela. They then gained control, mainly willingly, over most of the Phoenician city states, as they strongly disliked the rule of the Persians. However, Tyre was the exception here. Angered by the cities' allegiance to Darius, Alexander then began the siege of Tyre. Alexander demolished the part of Tyre then on the mainland and used the stones from the destroyed buildings to build a land bridge from the mainland to the island part of Tyre, thus bringing about the end of Phoenician rule of Tyre, at least temporarily. That is how the two parts of the city were eventually connected, although the destruction was massive. This is also why many of the remaining ruins in Tyre are connected to the Greeks, as little was left of the original Phoenician construction.
After the death of Alexander, his empire was spit between various factions including, once again, the Egyptians, then back to the Greeks, the Assyrians, and back and forth. The Tyrians were not completely gone, however, and depending on who was in control, they were allowed to continue in some aspects. Despite renewed devastations, Tyre regained its stature under Alexander's successors and profited from Silk Road commerce.
Tyre became a republic in 275 BC as rule of the Greeks weakened over the years. During the Punic Wars between Carthage and the Romans, who were now coming to power, Tyre naturally sympathized with its own created City State of Carthage. Upon his defeat in the Third Punic War (Track 11), Hannibal (Track 10) sought refuge in Tyre. Carthage, and the remaining Phoenician Empire, however, eventually lost everything to Rome. We'll touch more on the Romans later in the story with the tracks Battle Elephants (Track 8), Hannibal, Third Punic War (Track 11) and the final track, The Fall Of Carthage).
Needless to say, there's a lot of history in this region; I've only touched on the tip of the iceberg here, as one civilization rose and the other collapsed, over and over again. But all this history overlaps and creates the world we know today. I think it's good to know how we got here.
But now lets talk about the music of Track 2, Tyre.
Let's talk about the music!
For my purposes, we will talk about the City State of Tyre when it was the major hub of commerce and seat of the Phoenician Empire around 800 BC. So keep that in mind. That puts us just before Dido left to start the great city of Carthage.
Track 2, Tyre, has not been released as a single, but you can find the complete version on the Carthage page of this site! I have also done a YouTube video for this track which you can find at this link, but it's an abridged version minus the extended opening sequence.
Tyre is a highly experimental track and actually more of a painting in sound than anything else. So let's get to some of the imagery presented in the music.
Imagine you're a Phoenician traveler from, say, Sidon, and you're walking into the City State of Tyre for the very first time, looking to start a new life. You've heard there's a LOT going on in Tyre. You're traveling south from Sidon into Tyre, walking along the Mediterranean shoreline. You have absolutely no idea what to expect, so your senses are heightened and sharp. You can hear the waves gently washing up on the shoreline. In the distance, you hear music, the sound of a double harmonic major scale prevalent in music in the region. Then a flute, distant drums and finger cymbals and bells that were often used in Phoenician music. This is how the track starts off, with some heavy guitars added to increase the tension and pointing towards what's to come. You then hear some distant horns, also used heavily in music of the times. But what are they signaling? A greeting? A warning? A royal procession? Only Melqart knows.
Your curiosity is at a peak now, but you're entering the city and everything seems to be okay. You calm down and your nerves chill out. We're now at :45 seconds into the track after the extended introduction. The music now playing is a muted harp. some unknown stringed instruments and the flute playing once again, this time with a beautiful, soothing melody. Remember this melody; it comes back later! You start to relax even more and take in the sights: It's getting dark out, but there's still vendors at kiosks selling dates, fruit, pottery, metal wares, and even a fine fabric in the most glorious purple color you've ever seen. You're now really enjoying this walk into the unknown.
You're now at 1:30 into the track, and you enter the area of the city known as the north port. You hear again the sounds of water moving, against the docks now, wet ropes creaking that are holding the sailing vessels to the docks, more drums and finger cymbals, and what sounds like metal objects clanking together from a local metal worker's shop; he's making something for the market tomorrow. There's a boom off in the distance from Melqart knows what. You make a turn into a dark, weaving, descending alleyway that leads more towards the heart of the city, but it's getting darker now, there's some shady characters hanging around the docks, and the tension heightens once again as you start to lose your cool a little bit. You're seeing things in the darkness that you're not really sure what's there: Shapes, movements, figures. And it's all in a foggy mist. You're checking over your shoulder to see if anybody is behind you. The strings in this section now are playing long, high sustained chords to show the tension, and the piano goes on this descending pattern with some unusual chords to represent the growth of your nervousness as you descend down this alleyway. Now that same chord progression repeats with an aggressive guitar lead over it, adding a bit more tension.
Now at 2:45 you finally get out of that alleyway and back onto a main street. Things even out and your tension and nervousness subside. This section has a slow, repetitive rhythm that represents walking along this new boulevard lined with vendor stands, workshops, and a temple dedicated to the Phoenician God Melqart (Track 5).
But now at 3:26, off in the distance at the docks, you see ships loading up some -- freight? Troops? Gold? Is that Dido there getting ready to leave for Carthage? Is there a battle ahead? Your mind wanders off at the possibilities of what could be going on there, but it's almost a victorious, triumphant feeling, represented by this heavy 6/8 riff now in the guitars and drums. Then the harmony guitars and leads building throughout this section while you get closer, building and -- let's call it sailing along.
At 4;30, the meter and feeling change once again. Now we're back to a 4/4 straight rhythm and there's a repetition of the main melody from the section at :45, only now it feels very different, and the lead guitar carries the melody. There's a feeling of resolve, of accomplishment up to this point, but there's more to come; a feeling of admiration for this city which will now be your home, at least for now. Maybe you'll get on that ship and go to a new land to help build the magnificent City State of Carthage and bring the Phoenician Empire into the future to retain power for nearly 800 years, to be a part of history. Maybe you'll just hang out and pick and sell dates, become a vendor, or a craftsman, or a ship builder. But you're learning towards continuing your journey and getting on that ship. You just met your friends with whom you will stay for a while, have some food and drink while considering your next move. But you're positive, you're happy, and you strive for a continued success and an evolution in your personal improvement.
At 5:23, a hint of that uncertainty reappears as you consider your future. Just a bit of tension, but you know it's going to be okay, to be a new beginning, and you desire that strongly. This is signified by the repetition of the heavy riff from 3:26. But just once, as this is now the end of the present journey and the beginning of the next.
Conclusion
So why write a track about Tyre? Well, many, many reasons, as described above: Home of the Eastern Phoenician Empire, the home of Dido, who went on to found Carthage, the development of Tyrian Purple, the lifeblood of the economy, the two ports whose development led to immense trade and control over the Eastern Mediterranean region, bringing wealth and prosperity, the home of the first temples dedicated to Melqart and the religious center of Phoenician culture.
The story evolved the way it did because this was a common theme with the Phoenicians: Get on a ship, go explore, built new colonies, expand, flourish. perhaps go to war to defend your lands. But they really never knew what to expect or what the outcome would be; they just knew they had to try, whatever surprises were in store, what battles they had to win, what friends they would make or what enemies they would encounter. I've tried my best to demonstrate these moods with the sudden and unpredictable changes in the music of this track. I hope you've enjoyed the read! Up next, the Phoenician colony of Utica, or Utique, in Phoenician (Track 3). I encourage you, if you're really into history, to click the links in this blog and explore the other cultures, people, places and events mentioned. I can only scratch the surface here!
I'm currently recording lead guitars (always the last step in my process) for the last album track, "The Fall Of Carthage". It had to be the last track; nothing came after that!
There's a new page on this site titled "Carthage" where I've put in a music player where you can go listen to (almost) the entire album in order. Tracks 10 and 11 are just demos at this point, waiting to get mixed and mastered. But you'll get the flow and be able to see the whole concept of this album in one place for the first time. It's best to listen to the tracks in order to get the story, and I hope these blog posts fill in the blanks for you as to the storyline. The totality of this project should be an epic presentation. I think it's getting there.
Enjoy the music!
What a massive album this is!