before the birth of _Minos_.

_Justin_, in his 18th book, tells us: _A rege Ascaloniorum expugnati
Sidonii navibus appulsi Tyron urbem ante annum * * Trojanæ cladis
condiderunt_ And _Strabo_, [89] that _Aradus was built by the men who fled
from _Zidon__. Hence [90] _Isaiah_ calls _Tyre_ _the daughter of _Zidon_,
the inhabitants of the Isle whom the Merchants of _Zidon_ have
replenished_: and [91] _Solomon_ in the beginning of his Reign calls the
People of _Tyre_ _Zidonians_. _My Servants_, saith he, in a Message to
_Hiram_ King of _Tyre_, _shall be with thy Servants, and unto thee will I
give hire for thy Servants according to all that thou desirest: for thou
knowest that there is not among us any that can skill to hew timber like
the _Zidonians__. The new Inhabitants of _Tyre_ had not yet lost the name
of _Zidonians_, nor had the old Inhabitants, if there were any considerable
number of them, gained the reputation of the new ones for skill in hewing
of timber, as they would have done had navigation been long in use at
_Tyre_. The Artificers who came from _Zidon_ were not dead, and the flight
of the _Zidonians_ was in the Reign of _David_, and by consequence in the
beginning of the Reign of _Abibalus_ the father of _Hiram_, and the first
King of _Tyre_ mentioned in History. _David_ in the twelfth year of his
Reign conquered _Edom_, as above, and made some of the _Edomites_, and
chiefly the Merchants and Seamen, fly from the _Red Sea_ to the
_Philistims_ upon the _Mediterranean_, where they fortified _Azoth_. For
[92] _Stephanus_ tells us: Ταυτην εκτισεν ‛εις των επανελθοντων απ' Ερυθρας
θαλασσης Φευγαδων: _One of the Fugitives from the Red Sea built_ Azoth:
that is, a Prince of _Edom_, who fled from _David_, fortified _Azoth_ for
the _Philistims_ against him. The _Philistims_ were now grown very strong,
by the access of the _Edomites_ and Shepherds, and by their assistance
invaded and took _Zidon_, that being a town very convenient for the
Merchants who fled from the _Red Sea_: and then did the _Zidonians_ fly by