NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

NOTE II. Sect. I. p. 8 .

When we confider the extent and effedts of the Pheniciancommerce , the fcanty information concerning it which wereceive from ancient writers, nnift, ona firft view, appearfi.irprifing. But when we recoiled that all the Greek Hifto*riais, (Herodotus excepted,) who give any account of thePnenicians, pubhfhed their works long after the deftrudion ofTyre by Alexander the Great , we will ceafe to wonder attheir not having entered into minute details with refped toa trade which was then removed to new feats, and carriedon in other channels. But the power and opulence of Tyre,in the profperous age of its commerce , mull have attractedgeneral attention. In the prophecies of Ezekiel, who flou-rifhed two hundred and lixty years before the fall of Tyre,there is the moll particular account of the nature and varietyof its commercial tranfadions that is to be found in anyancient writer , and which conveys , at the fame time,a magnificent idea of the extenfive power of that Rate.

Ch. xxvi, xxvii, xxviii.

NOTE III. Sect. I. p. 12.

I

The account given of the revenue of the Perfian monarchy jby Herodotus is curious, and feems to have been copied !from fome public record, which had been communicated tohim. According to it, the Perfian empire was divided intotwenty Satrapy ’s, or governments. The tribute levied fromeach is fpecified, amounting in all to 14,1; 60 Eubseantalents, which Dr-. Arbuthnot reckons to be equal to2,807,4 ?7 1 . Belling money; a fum extremely fmall for therevenue of the Great King , and which ill accords withmany fads concerning the riches, magnificence, and luxuryof the Eait, that occur in ancient authors.