Abdastartus

Abdastartus (‘Abd-‘Ashtart) was a king of Tyre, son of Baal-Eser I (Beleazarus) and grandson of Hiram I. The only information available about Abdastartus comes from the following citation of the Phoenician author Menander of Ephesus, in Josephus's Against Apion i.18:

Upon the death of Hirom, Beleazarus his son took the kingdom; he lived forty-three years, and reigned seven years: after him succeeded his son Abdastartus; he lived twenty-nine years, and reigned nine years. Now four sons of his nurse plotted against him and slew him.

"‘Abd-‘Ashtart" redirects here. For the 4th-century BC ruler of Sidon, see Abdashtart I.
Abdastartus (‘Abd-‘Ashtart)
King of Tyre
Reign929 – 921 BC
PredecessorBaal-Eser I (Beleazarus I, Ba‘l-mazzer I) 946 – 930 BC
SuccessorAstartus (‘Ashtart) 920 – 901 BC
Born950 BC
Tyre, presumed
Died921 or 920 BC
DynastyDynasty of Abibaal and Hiram I
FatherBaal-Eser I (Beleazarus I, Ba‘l-mazzer I)
Motherunknown

Therefore, according to Menander/Josephus, Abdastartus began to reign seven years after the death of his grandfather, Hiram I. The dating of Hiram and the following kings is based on the studies of J. Liver,[1] J. M. Peñuela,[2] F. M. Cross,[3] and William H. Barnes,[4] all of whom build on the inscriptional evidence of a synchronism between Baal-Eser II and Shalmaneser III in 841 BC.[5] Earlier studies that did not take this inscriptional evidence into consideration will have differing dates for the kings of Tyre.

A further overview of the chronology of Tyrian kings from Hiram I to Pygmalion, with a discussion of the importance of Dido's flight from Tyre and eventual founding of Carthage for dating these kings, is found in the Pygmalion of Tyre article.

See also

References
  1. J. Liver, “The Chronology of Tyre at the Beginning of the First Millennium B.C.” Israel Exploration Journal 3 (1953) 119-120.
  2. J. M. Peñuela, “La Inscripción Asiria IM 55644 y la Cronología de los reyes de Riro”, Sefarad 13 (1953) 217-37 and 14 (1954) 1-39.
  3. F. M. Cross, “An Interpretation of the Nora Stone,” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 208 (1972) 17, n. 11.
  4. William H. Barnes, Studies in the Chronology of the Divided Monarchy of Israel (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1991) 29-55.
  5. Fuad Safar, “A Further Text of Shalmaneser III from Assur,” Sumer 7 (1951) 3-21.
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