TYRE (Heb.-Phoenician Şor, Şor; cf. Şor « fortress »; Gr. Τύρος; Mod. Şūr).-Phoenician Şor, Şor; cf. şor "rock"; Gk. Tyros; modern Şur). - Principal city of Phoenicia.
The origins of the maritime city of T. are perhaps due to fishing stations (settlers from Sidon?) at the beginning of the 3rd millennium; very ancient traces, of unknown origin, have been found further inland.
T. was soon in a relationship of exchange with Egypt, as local remains and mentions in hieroglyphic texts show, and so it was throughout the era of the city's splendor, between the 14th and 7th centuries B.C. In the age of el-'Amâmah the influence—commercial rather than political—of Egypt over T. was very strong; afterward the city governed itself and kept acquiring ever greater development in comparison with its rival Sidon. Various industries prospered in the city, even of the character of large enterprises, especially in metallurgy, goldsmithing, weaving, and dyeing; excavations have brought to light traces of the installations, which can moreover be better understood from Byblos, where the remains have been preserved better. The Tyrian colonies, scattered throughout the Mediterranean (Carthage, Hippo, Bizerte, Utica, Cadiz), and apparently also beyond the Pillars of Hercules (Tarshish), were great outlets for the placement of manufactured goods. So that navigation is but one aspect of the grandiose civilization of T. Apart from the accent on T. in Josh. 19:29 (cf. II Sam. 24:7) concerning the partitioning of Canaan, where it is said that the northwestern boundary of Asher reaches "as far as the fortified city of T."—9:10, according to the Septuagint, "as far as the spring of T."—that is, Râs el-'Ajn, 3 km. south of the city, where there are ancient artesian wells and an aqueduct, T. enters the biblical horizon precisely as an industrial and artistic center, from the time of David with King Hiram (v.) and of Solomon with the artist also called Hiram (v.).
Afterward the biblical references to T. acquire literary and moralizing contours: a complacent, though indirect, allusion to its splendor (Ps. 45:13: its gifts for a royal wedding; ibid. 87:4: among the peoples who pay homage to Zion); harsh reproach for the capture and trade of slaves, which unfortunately were not lacking among the Phoenician categories of export (Am. 1:9-10; Joel 4:4-5); prophetic judgment on the mournful end of the proud city (Is. 23; Ez. 26-28). Ezekiel gives a splendid description of the magnificence of T., of its commerce, of its port, figuring the city itself as a ship, more for allegorical than real purposes, as a personification of pride, an insult to other peoples and to God (in Ezekiel's time T., which had had to defend itself several times against Assyrian invasions, was in decline), but with reference to the actual history of the city and of its colonies.
In the Persian and Hellenistic age the importance of T. kept diminishing; there remained, however, the great memory of its past power, ordinarily in union with Sidon, as the allusions of the Gospel show (Mt. 11:21-22; 15:21; Mk. 3:8; 7:24, 31; Lk. 6:17; 10:13 and following), together with a certain movement in its port (Acts 21:3-7).
It was an episcopal see from apostolic times. There Origen died and St. Athanasius was condemned (335). Having fallen under the Arabs (638), it followed the fortunes of Syria (under the caliphs of Damascus, then of Baghdad, then the Seljuks). The fortress had a moment of importance again at the time of the Crusades; conquered by Baldwin II (1124), it became the seat of a Latin bishopric, whose titular was the famous hermit William; abandoned, however, after the fall of St. John of Acre (1291), it was reduced to a small center, inhabited mostly by fishermen, today perhaps numbering about 9,000.
T. is at present the seat of: 1) the Melkite bishopric since 1683, with 10 parishes, 9 priests, 7,945 faithful among 102,500 inhabitants; 2) a Maronite bishopric since 1838, previously from 15 Aug. 1819 a vicariate, with 22 churches, of which 20 are parishes, 25 priests and 11,561 faithful.
Bibliography6 works
Giovanni Rinaldi
ARCHAEOLOGY
Of the bishops of T., Eusebius mentions in the 2nd century Cassius, who took part in the Synod on the celebration of Easter (Hist. eccl., V, 25); around 250 the bishop Marinus is mentioned in a letter of Dionysius of Alexandria to Pope Stephen (ibid., VII, 5).
In the great persecution there fell the bishop Tyrannios (Eusebius, Hist. eccl., VIII, 13), the martyr Ulpian (id., De martyr. Palaest., 5, 1), the martyr Theodosia (ibid., 7, 1). The Jeronymian Martyrology, on 24 July, attributes to the city of T. the martyr Christina (v.). Eusebius was present in T. at the cruel torments to which many Christians were subjected; he recalls that those exposed to the beasts set upon them remained unharmed, like five Egyptians who were then beheaded and thrown into the sea (Hist. eccl., VIII, 8).
In T. Eusebius found posted a bronze tablet with the copy of the letter sent by the emperor Maximinus Daia to congratulate the cities that had issued decrees against the Christians (ibid., IX, 7).
The learned Antiochene priest Dorotheus, whose pupil Eusebius of Caesarea was, around the end of the 3rd century was appointed by the Emperor administrator of the purple dye-works in T. (ibid., VII, 32). By Eusebius, in the discourse for the consecration of the new church of T. which he dedicated to the bishop of T. Paulinus, the new building is called "the most beautiful church in all of Phoenicia" (ibid., VIII, 7). Among the precious fabrics donated by the popes to the churches of Rome those "Tyrea" are often mentioned; Adrian I (772-95) offered 65 of them to the basilica of St. Peter and 20 for each title or parish (Lib. Pont., I, pp. 499, 504). Of T. is Frumentius (v.), apostle of Abyssinia.
In 1845 excavations were carried out and a baptistery was found, which was reached by means of two opposite stairways (S. N. Seppz, Meerfahrt nach Tyres zur Ausgrabung der Kathedrale mit Barbarossa's Grab, Leipzig 1879, pp. 210, 217). From the sources the octagonal church of the Theotokos is known. Some decorative mosaics of the Byzantine age are in Paris in the Louvre Museum. T. is today also a titular archiepiscopal see of the Latin rite.
Enrico Josi