Phelles was a King of Tyre and the last of four brothers who held the kingship. The only information available about Phelles comes from Josephus’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 ''Against Apion'' ( ''Peri Archaiotētos Ioudaiōn Logos''; Latin ''Contra Apionem'' or ''In Apionem'') is a work written by Flavius Josephus (c. 37 CE – c. 100 CE ) as a defense of Judaism against criticism by the Egyptian author Apion. J ...

'' i.18. Here it is said that Phelles slew his brother Aserymus ( Astarymus) and then “took the kingdom, and reigned but eight months, though he lived fifty years: he was slain by Ithobalus (

Ithobaal I Ithobaal I is the name of a 9th-century BCE king of Tyre mentioned in the story of Jezebel from the Hebrew Bible, and in a citation by Josephus of a list of the kings of Tyre put together by the Phoenician author Menander of Ephesus (2nd century ...

), the priest of Astarte.” He and the three preceding kings were brothers, sons of the nurse of Abdastartus, according to Menander. The dates given here are according to the work of F. M. Cross and other scholarsWilliam H. Barnes, ''Studies in the Chronology of the Divided Monarchy of Israel'' (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1991) 29-55. who take 825 BC as the date of Dido’s flight from her brother Pygmalion, after which she founded the city 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 ...

in 814 BC. See the chronological justification for these dates in the

Pygmalion of Tyre Pygmalion (Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ) was king of Tyre, Lebanon, Tyre from 831 to 785 BCE and a son of King Mattan I (840–832 BC). During Pygmalion's reign, Tyre seems to have shifted the heart of its trading empire from the Middle East to the ...

article.

References

{{Authority control 9th-century BC kings of Tyre 9th-century BC murdered monarchs 10th-century BC births 870s BC deaths

See also

References