ed in the Greek period between the Phoenician towns. The
destruction of Sidon must have allowed Tyre to develop and
take the first place.

[Illustration: 297.jpg A PHILISTINE SHIP OF WAR]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Beato.

But however vigorously they may have plied the occupation of Corsairs at
the outset of their career, there was, it would appear, a rapid falling
off in their maritime prowess; it was on land, and as soldiers, that
they displayed their bravery and gained their fame. Their geographical
position, indeed, on the direct and almost only route for caravans
passing between Asia and Africa, must have contributed to their success.
The number of such caravans was considerable, for although Egypt had
ceased to be a conquering nation on account of her feebleness at home,
she was still one of the great centres of production, and the most
important market of the East. A very great part of her trade with
foreign countries was carried on through the mouths of the Nile, and of
this commerce the Phoenicians had made themselves masters; the remainder
followed the land-routes, and passed continually through the territory
of the Philistines. These people were in possession of the tract of land
which lay between the Mediterranean and the beginning of the southern
desert, forming as it were a narrow passage, into which all the roads
leading from the Nile to the Euphrates necessarily converged. The chief
of these routes was that which crossed Mount Carmel, near Megiddo, and
passed up the valleys of the Litany and the Orontes. This was met
at intervals by other secondary roads, such as that which came from
Damascus by way of Tabor and the plain of Jezreel, or those which,
starting out from the highland of Gilead, led through the fords of the
Lower Jordan to Ekron and Gath respectively. The Philistines charged
themselves, after the example and at the instigation of the Egyptians,
with the maintenance of the great trunk road which was in their hands,
and also with securing safe transit along it, as far as they could
post their troops, for those who confided themselves to their care. In
exchange for these good offices they exacted the same tolls which had
been levied by the Canaanites before them.

In their efforts to put down brigandage, they had been brought into
contact with some of the Hebrew clans after the latter had taken
possession of Canaan. Judah, in its home among the mountains of t