Mattan, Matan, or Mittin ruled Tyre from 840 to 832 BC, succeeding his father

Baal-Eser II Baal-Eser II (846–841 BC), also known as Balbazer II and Ba'l-mazzer I was a king of Tyre, the son of Ithobaal I, brother of Jezebel and brother-in-law of Ahab. The primary information related to Baal-Eser II comes from Josephus's citation o ...

. He was the father of Pygmalion, king of Tyre from 831 to 785 BC, and of

Dido Dido ( ; , ), also known as Elissa ( , ), was the legendary founder and first queen of the Phoenician city-state of Carthage (located in Tunisia), in 814 BC. In most accounts, she was the queen of the Phoenician city-state of Tyre (located ...

, the legendary queen of

Carthage Carthage was an ancient city in Northern Africa, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the classic ...

. The primary information related to Mattan I comes from

Josephus Flavius Josephus (; , ; ), born Yosef ben Mattityahu (), was a Roman–Jewish historian and military leader. Best known for writing '' The Jewish War'', he was born in Jerusalem—then part of the Roman province of Judea—to a father of pr ...

’s citation of the Phoenician author

Menander of Ephesus Menander of Ephesus (; fl. c. early 2nd century BC) was the historian whose lost work on the history of Tyre was used by Josephus, who quotes Menander's list of kings of Tyre in his apologia for the Jews, '' Against Apion'' (1.18). "This Menan ...

in ''Against Apion'' i.18. Here it is said that " Badezorus was succeeded by Matgenus his son: he lived thirty-two years and reigned, nine years: Pygmalion succeeded him". Alternative dates for his reign, from 829 to 821 BC, are given in the work of F. M. Cross and other scholars who take 825 BC as the date of Dido’s flight from her brother Pygmalion, after which she founded the city of

in 814 BC.1
For those who place the seventh year of Pygmalion in 814 BC, i.e. in the same year that Dido left Tyre, the dates of Mattan and Pygmalion will be 11 years later.

Classicist Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...

T. T. Duke states that Mattan was also known as (, 'Gift of the Lord'), which was turned hypocoristically into King Belus of Tyre in

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; 15 October 70 BC21 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Rome, ancient Roman poet of the Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Augustan period. He composed three of the most fa ...

's ''

Aeneid The ''Aeneid'' ( ; or ) is a Latin Epic poetry, epic poem that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy, Trojan who fled the Trojan War#Sack of Troy, fall of Troy and travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Ancient Rome ...

''.

References

{{reflist, 30em 9th-century BC births 830s BC deaths Phoenician characters in the Aeneid 9th-century BC kings of Tyre

See also

References