calling to Artaxerxes for help against Evagoras.[536] The city stood on
the left bank of the river Clarius, and covered the northern slope of
a low hill detached from the main range, extending also over the low
ground at the foot of the hill to within a short distance of the shore,
where are to be seen the remains of the ancient harbour. The soil in
the neighbourhood is very rich, and adapted for almost any kind of
cultivation.[537] In the mountains towards the south were prolific veins
of copper.

The northern coast of the island between Capes Cormaciti and S. Andreas
does not seem to have attracted the Phoenicians, though there are some
who regard Lapethus and Cerynia as Phoenician settlements.[538] It is a
rock-bound shore of no very tempting aspect, behind which the mountain
range rises up steeply. Such Phoenician emigrants as held their way
along the Salaminian plain and, rounding Cape S. Andreas, passed into
the channel that separates Cyprus from the mainland, found the coast
upon their right attract them far more than that upon their left, and
formed settlements in Cilicia which ultimately became of considerable
importance. The chief of these was Tars or Tarsus, probably the Tarshish
of Genesis,[539] though not that of the later Books, a Phoenician city,
which has Phoenician characters upon its coins, and worshipped the
supreme Phoenician deity under the title of "Baal Tars," "the Lord of
Tarsus."[540] Tarsus commanded the rich Cilician plain up to the very
roots of Taurus, was watered by the copious stream of the Cydnus, and
had at its mouth a commodious harbour. Excellent timber for shipbuilding
grew on the slopes of the hills bounding the plain, and the river
afforded a ready means of floating such timber down to the sea.
Cleopatra's ships are said to have been derived from the Cilician
forests, which Antony made over to her for the purpose.[541] Other
Phoenician settlements upon the Cilician coast were, it is probable,