Farming was also important. Products raised within Phœnicia were used chiefly for home consumption. Orchards, gardens, and grain-fields yielded abundant returns and provided the food supply of the population, save for fish, and such articles of luxury as were demanded by the citizens of the wealthy ports. The country was too small and its arable acreage too limited to admit of extensive agricultural pursuits.
While the manufactories of the country were less important, they had an important place. Phœnicia was widely famed for the production of four distinct articles, in the making of which her people excelled. First of these was a purple dye. Other nations attempted to provide the same commodity but never equalled the perfection of the Tyrian dye. Large quantities of shell-fish yielding the precious fluid from which it was made, were found off the Tyrian coast. They were of two species. A little sac containing a creamy secretion was opened in one, and the fluid carefully extracted. The other was ground up, shell and all. Both were necessary to produce the beautiful tints peculiar to Phœnician cloths.
Their special processes of dyeing, exposing the materials to the different degrees of light while drying, as well as the chemical employed to make the colors fast, were secrets well guarded, so that no imitation could deceive when compared to the splendid purples of Tyre. Since dress fabrics and material for covering furniture were most desired in rich and costly hues, raw wool was extensively imported and woven to meet the ever increasing demand. Dress stuffs from Phœnicia were prized as booty or as tribute by the several countries which at different periods exacted homage from Tyre and Sidon.
Sidon was famous for her glassware. Pliny the Elder, a Roman who wrote on History and Science during the first century of the Christian era, gave the tradition current in his day concerning the so-called "discovery of glass."
"It is said that some Phœnician merchants, having landed on the shores of the river Belus, were preparing their meal, and not finding suitable stones for raising their saucepans, they used lumps of natrum contained in their cargo for the purpose. When the natrum was exposed to the action of the fire, it melted into the sand lying on the banks of the river, and they saw transparent streams of some unknown liquid trickling over the ground; this was the origin of glass." At least the tale is reasonable, and might have been the experience of people at different times. At all events, the art becoming known to the Phœnicians, they attained notable skill in imitating precious stones in colored glass. It was their experience that trinkets, such as beads, were in great favor among half-civilized tribes with whom they traded, and the satisfaction was mutual when a few strings of glass beads had been exchanged for skins, ivory and even gold. It is now believed that some of the rare glass-ware, treasured as Grecian in museums today, was really produced in Sidon.
Articles fashioned of gold, silver and other metals were especially attractive. Such bits of jewelry as have been discovered—necklaces, bracelets, and rings, give evidence of a high degree of workmanship. Bowls, goblets, and dishes were elaborately wrought from metals, and while the decorative designs upon them were often borrowed from the Greeks or the Egyptians, the original was frequently improved upon. The following lines from the Iliad show how bits of Phœnician work were treasured among the Hellenes:
"And then the son of Peleus placed in sight
Prizes of swiftness,—a wrought silver cup
That held six measures, and in beauty far
Excelled all others known; the cunning hands
Of the Sidonian artisans have given
Its graceful shape, and over the dark sea
Men of Phœnicia brought it, with their wares,
To the Greek harbors; Achilles now
Brought it before the assembly as a prize,
For which, in honor of the friend he loved,
The swiftest runners of the host should strive."
Hebrew chroniclers have described the decoration of Solomon's temple—all wrought by Phœnician skill:
"And King Solomon sent and fetched Hiram out of Tyre. He was a widow's son, ... and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in brass: and he was filled with wisdom and understanding, and cunning to work all works in brass. And he came to King Solomon, and wrought all his work.
"For he cast two pillars of brass, of eighteen cubits high apiece: and a line of twelve cubits did compass either of them about. And he made two capitals of molten brass, to set upon the tops of the pillars: the height of the one capital was five cubits, and the height of the other capital was five cubits. And nets of checker work, and wreaths of chain work, for the capitals which were upon the top of the pillars, seven for one capital and seven for the other capital. And he made the pillars, and two rows round about upon the one network, to cover the capitals that were upon the top, with pomegranates: and so did he for the other capital. And the capitals that were upon the top of the pillars were of lily work in the porch, four cubits.... And he set up the pillars in the porch of the temple: and he set up the right pillar and called the name thereof Jachin: and he sat up the left pillar and called the name thereof Boaz. And upon the top of the pillars was lily work: so was the work of the pillars finished.