Gatier (2011)

Synopsis

Introduction

from Gatier (2011:255-256)

The sources we have on the history of the earthquakes and tsunamis that have hit Tyre are, at present, purely textual. The day will come when archaeological research will have advanced sufficiently to be able to add evidence from buildings and stratigraphy. In the meantime, it is appropriate to take stock of Antiquity (Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine) and the Middle Ages (Islamic and Frankish).

Two excellent works, produced under the direction of Mrs. Emanuela Guidoboni¹ provide almost exhaustive lists of earthquakes and tsunamis attested in the Mediterranean world, the first for the periods before the 10th century AD, the second from the 11th to the 15th century AD. For each event, the sources are listed and classified into two categories. The texts of the first category, which would give a purer state of the information, are cited in their original language, with a translation and a commentary. The second category is reserved for texts which echo the previous ones and which are mentioned without being cited. This hierarchy, although debatable, remains of practical use and the criticism of the documents is not neglected by the authors who first try to characterize the earthquakes and tsunamis studied and to specify their extent and effects. The two works in question will exempt the reader from having to resort to the lists established by earlier authors, on less certain bases, but they are nevertheless susceptible to improvements and clarifications. For my part, I will limit myself here to pointing out, according to E. Guidoboni and her collaborators, those events which affected Tyre, without providing a list of textual sources – particularly numerous in the Middle Ages – provided by these Italian scholars, but without prohibiting myself from providing comments or additions.

It should be remembered that the oldest periods are the least documented and that those in which Tyre was particularly at the centre of the attention of ancient or medieval authors are the best known, quite naturally. It is therefore obvious that several of the seismic catastrophes that affected the peninsula between the end of the 4th century BC and the end of the 13th century AD, particularly those of the Hellenistic period and the beginning of the Islamic period, have gone unnoticed by our sources. Conversely, Late Antiquity (also called the Byzantine/proto-Byzantine period) and the period of the Frankish occupation, which appear to be ages of "seismic crises", are periods in which the set of textual sources is the most abundant, whatever the subject concerned, from the economy to religious life².

Footnotes

1. E. Guidoboni, with the collaboration of A. Comastri and G. Traina, Catalogue of ancient earthquakes in the Mediterranean area up to the 10th century, Rome and Bologna, 1994; E. Guidoboni and A. Comastri, Catalogue of earthquakes and tsunamis in the Mediterranean area from the 11th to the 15th century, Rome, 2005. These works will be cited as Guidoboni 1 and Guidoboni 2, with the catalogue number and the pages concerned. The second catalogue, Guidoboni 2, is designed according to a slightly different method, with, for the period after the 10th century, more precise maps and comments that show the epicentre of the earthquakes, distinguish the phases, propose a choice of different hypotheses, etc. J. P. Brown, The Lebanon and Phoenicia. Ancient Texts Illustrating their Physical Geography and Native Industries, I, The Physical Settings and the Forest, Beirut, 1969, provides a selection of numerous texts, belonging to various periods and to a fairly large geographical area, translated and commented, some of which concern earthquakes.

2. Similarly, nothing is known of the earthquakes of the Mamluk era, after the reconquest from the Franks and the destruction of the city, nor of the first three centuries of the Ottoman era, in all five centuries during which Tyre was deserted or very modestly repopulated. The first earthquake mentioned after the 13th century is that of 1837, which caused severe destruction to what remained of the Frankish cathedral, E. Robinson and E. Smith, Biblical researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai and Arabia Petraea. A journal of travels in the year 1838, III, London, 1841, p. 399.

Unstable Tyre

from Gatier (2011:256-258)

The reputation of the fragility of Tyre's soil is well established in Antiquity and is due first of all to the island character of the city, whereas the dike built by Alexander the Great, at the origin of the isthmus, that is to say the tombolo which connects it to the continent, did not succeed in erasing. This reputation is clearly presented in the various foundation stories. According to Flavius Josephus, who affirms, citing (?) 2nd century BC author Menander of Ephesus³, that King Hiram of Tyre is said to have carried out the earthworks of the Eurychorus, that is to say the Great Square⁴. The same Josephus also gives, according to a Dios⁵ a historian possibly roughly contemporaneous with Menander of Ephesus, a more detailed explanation of these works:

It was he [Hiram] who made earthworks in the eastern part of the city and thus enlarged the city; and the sanctuary of Olympian Zeus which was isolated on an island, he connected it to the city by filling in the gap...

Nonnos of Panopolis, in the 5th century AD. , in his immense poem of the Dionysiaques, so rich in information on the myths of the cities of the eastern Mediterranean, provides, in book 40, a foundation story where primitive men from the silt are sent by Heracles to the Lots, from the continent towards the open sea, "where two unstable rocks wander in the sea"⁶. These are the famous Ambrosian Rocks (Fig. 1), that is to say Immortal, that the inaugural sacrifice will transform by rooting them:

and the unstable rock will cease to wander in the eye of the water, but enclosed by an immutable foundation, of its own accord, it will unite with the rock from which it was disunited⁷.

Thus the island of Tyre will be formed and founded. It is not appropriate here to dwell on the well-known role of the Ambrosian Rocks in Tyrian myths, but we will emphasize the strength and persistence of the image of the instability of an island of Tyre formed by the union, real or mythical, of two primitive islets.

Similarly, the poet Lucan, in the first century AD, when listing the peoples and cities of Syria, mentions Tyros instabilis, “unstable Tyre”⁸. This instability is well explained by Seneca, at the same time, in the sixth book of his Natural Questions, devoted to earthquakes:

Tyre itself is shaken by earthquakes as well as eroded by the sea⁹.

The philosopher brings together two distinct phenomena, on the one hand earthquakes and on the other hand subsidence, that is to say the progressive sinking of a part of the Tyrian island or peninsula under the sea. This process, which recent geo-archaeological work has highlighted¹⁰, is particularly evident in the southern part of the current peninsula (Fig. 2). It seems to me likely that the two Latin authors, Lucan and Seneca, draw their information from Hellenistic historians.

The rooting of the island, which the union of the two islets by Hiram or the primitive sacrifice to Heracles produced and which the jetty built by Alexander the Great, a new Heracles, in some way reinforced or recreated, is not considered by the Ancients as an established fact and needs to be renewed. Achilles Tatius, in The Romance of Leucippe and Clitophon, writes about Tyre:

it has no roots in the sea, but water flows beneath it; there is a passage under the isthmus¹¹.

One can strongly doubt the reality of this underground conduit, which would have been established in the dike and through which the sea would have passed, but the description nevertheless shows, in a citation that is attributed approximately to the 2nd century AD, the presence of the theme of instability which must have been widespread and part of what could be called the image of Tyre. This is also a characteristic that it shared with other islands, and especially with Delos¹² which is particularly concerned by the phenomena of subsidence.

Footnotes

3. Flavius Josèphe, Antiquités juives, VIII, 5, 4 (145), et Contre Apion, I, 18 (116) ; repris par Georges le Syncelle, Ecloga chronographica, 345, éd. A. A. Mosshammer, Leipzig (Teubner), 1984, p. 214.

4. Trad. É. Nodet, dans Flavius Josèphe, Les Antiquités juives, volume IV, livres VIII et IX, Paris (Le Cerf), 2005, p. 45.

5. Flavius Josèphe, Antiquités juives, VIII, 5, 4 (147), et Contre Apion, I, 17 (113). Je conserve la traduction des Antiquités juives par É. Nodet, p. 45, avec de légères modifications et en y intégrant les ajouts qui se trouvent dans le texte grec, quasi identique à cet endroit, du Contre Apion : Οὗτος τὰ πρὸς ἀνατολὰς μέρη τῆς πόλεως προσέχωσεν καὶ μεῖζον τὸ ἄστυ ἐποίησεν καὶ τοῦ Ὀλυμπίου Διὸς τὸ ἱερὸν, καθ’ ἑαυτὸ ὂν ἐν νήσῳ, χώσας τὸν μεταξὺ τόπον, συνῆψε τῇ πόλει… Sur Ménandre et Dios, M. Stern, Greek and Latin Authors on Jews and Judaism, I, From Herodotus to Plutarch, Jérusalem, 1974, p. 119-125.

6. Nonnos, Dionysiaques, XL, 468-469, éd. et trad. B. Simon, Paris (CUF, t. 14), 1999, p. 180 : ὁππόθι δισσαί ἀσταθέες πλώουσιν ἀλήμονες εἰν ἁλὶ πέτραι ; voir Dionysiaques, XL, 425. Sur ces légendes tyriennes dans Nonnos, P. Chuvin, Mythologie et géographie dionysiaques. Recherches sur l’œuvre de Nonnos de Panopolis, Clermont-Ferrand, 1991, p. 224-254 et pl. 3, 26-31.

7. Nonnos, Dionysiaques, XL, 496-498 (trad. B. Simon, p. 181) : καὶ ἄστατος οὐκέτι πέτρη πλάζεται ὑγροφόρητος, ἀκινήτοις δὲ θεμέθλοις αὐτομάτη ζωσθεῖσα συνάψεται ἄζυγι πέτρῃ ; voir XL, 531-534.

8. Lucain, Pharsale, III, 217. Le scoliaste, Adnotationes super Lucanum, éd. I. Endt, Stuttgart (Teubner), 1909, p. 95, hésite à comprendre cette instabilité comme une manifestation de la perfidie phénicienne ou comme l’effet des séismes : Tyros instabilis siue propter fallacium, ut Virgilius Tyriosque bilingues, siue quia terrae motu laborat.

9. Sénèque, Questions naturelles, VI, 26, 4, éd. et trad. P. Oltramare, Paris (CUF, t. 2), 1961, p. 283 : Tyros et ipsa tam mouetur quam diluitur.

10. Dans une production abondante, on retiendra ici l’ouvrage collectif publié par Chr. Morhange et M. Saghieh-Beydoun (éd.), La mobilité des paysages portuaires antiques du Liban, Beyrouth (BAAL, Hors-série, 2), 2005, et la synthèse de N. Marriner, Géoarchéologie des ports antiques du Liban, Paris, 2009, qui modifient complétement les conclusions auxquelles était parvenu le P. A. Poidebard, Un grand port disparu, Tyr. Recherches aériennes et sous marines, 1934-1936, 2 vol., Paris (BAH, 29), 1939.

11. Achille Tatius, Le roman de Leucippé et Clitophon, II, 14, 4, éd. et trad. J.-Ph. Garnaud (CUF), Paris, 1991, p. 45 : οὐκ ἐρρίζωται δὲ κατὰ τῆς θαλάσσης, ἀλλὰ τὸ ὕδωρ ὑπορρεῖ κάτωθεν · ὑπόκειται δὲ πορθμὸς κάτωθεν ἰσθμῷ.

12. Sénèque, Questions naturelles, VI, 26, 2-4, associe, à quelques lignes d’intervalle, les cas de Délos et de Tyr sur la question de savoir si les îles sont immuables. Voir, sur ces thèmes, les pages, très documentées mais confuses, d’A. B. Cook, « Floating islands », dans son Zeus. A study in ancient religion, III, 2, Cambridge, 1940, p. 975-1015, et l’article lumineux de P. Moret, « Planesiai, îles erratiques de l’Occident grec », REG, 110, 1997, p. 25-56, qui n’évoque cependant pas la subsidence. Selon ce dernier auteur, le culte rendu à Héraclès à Tyr serait destiné, entre autres, à renouveler l’enracinement primitif de l’île. Sur Délos, voir S. Desruelles, E. Fouache et al., « Beachrocks et variations récentes de la ligne de rivage en mer Égée dans l’ensemble insulaire Mykonos-Délos-Rhénée (Cyclades, Grèce) », Géomorphologie, 10/1, 2004, p. 5-17, et R. Dalongeville, S. Desruelles et al., « La hausse relative du niveau marin à Délos (Cyclades, Grèce) : rythme et effets sur les paysages littoraux de la ville hellénistique », Méditerranée, 108, 2007, p. 17-28.

Ancient earthquakes and tsunamis (Hellenistic and Imperial eras)

from Gatier (2011:260-262)

Abandoning the slow movements of subsidence, and returning to the short and immediately perceptible catastrophes that constitute earthquakes and tsunamis, let us note that two traditions reinforce the image of the instability of Tyre, but by evoking earthquakes. First is Justin, the abbreviator of the Philippic Histories of Trogus-Pompey written in the 1st century AD, who reports a legend of the founding of the city from a tradition that I consider favorable to Sidon and therefore hostile to Tyre. He states that the Tyrians are descended from the Phoenicians who were forced to abandon their first homeland due to an earthquake. Without going into detail, we must see here an allusion to traditions – also known by other ancient authors – which make Tylos/Tyros (current island of Bahrain in the Arabian-Persian Gulf) the starting point of the migration of the oldest Phoenicians towards the Mediterranean and the original cradle of Tyre¹⁴. This theme of the pre-founding earthquake is also found in Quintus Curtius, at the end of his account of the siege of Tyre by Alexander. The Latin historian takes it up again in seeking to explain the reasons for the creation of the Tyrian colonial foundations, including Thebes, Carthage and Gades. After having mentioned various causes, he adds: "or again, the number of earthquakes - this according to another tradition - tired the natives, thus obliged to seek by arms foreign dwellings"¹⁵. Without going into too much detail, it will not be difficult, by bringing together several of these legends, to mirror the wandering and the fixation, the earthquakes that repeatedly drive the Tyrians towards new Tyres and the act of foundation that roots the lands and stabilizes men.

With Strabo, a contemporary of Augustus, and Seneca, already mentioned, we leave the legends for the memory of earthquakes chronologically closer to these authors, although their sources must be found in the now largely lost works of Hellenistic historians, foremost among whom is Poseidonius of Apamea. Strabo writes of Tyre: "the houses there are said to have many floors, even more than those of Rome, which is why earthquakes have almost destroyed it from top to bottom"¹⁶. As for Seneca, in a passage on the collapse of cities as a consequence of earthquakes, he adds: "Tyre was once only too famous for its ruins"¹⁷. Overall, we must retain the possibility that earthquakes occurred at undetermined dates in the Hellenistic period.

Moreover, we find in the Guidoboni catalogue 1 (n° 039, p. 145), according to a fragment of Poseidonius of Apamea transmitted by Strabo, an earthquake which had serious consequences in Sidon in 199/198 BC [JW: The exact date is uncertain]: "In Phoenicia, if we are to believe Poseidonius, an earthquake engulfed a city located above Sidon and caused about two thirds of the city of Sidon itself to collapse"¹⁸. The text presents three difficulties. First, the preposition ὑπέρ, “above,” can mean “inland,” in relation to a city located on the coast, but also “next to” based on a series of neighboring sites classified in a given direction, generally – but not exclusively – South/North. Second, the verb that is translated “to swallow,” καταπίνω, seems to refer to a tsunami – as in the evocation of seismic disasters affecting coastal cities, Helike in Polybius or Pisaurum (modern Pesaro) in Plutarch¹⁹ –, but a more general or metaphorical meaning, “to swallow” or “to drink completely,” applying for example to rivers disappearing into the earth, cannot be excluded. Third, the noun πόλις can be translated as “city” rather than “town,” which broadens the scope of the sites concerned, since the only two cities, in the ancient sense, that could be considered in this context would be Tyre, to the south of Sidon, and Berytus, to the north. As for Tyre, if it had indeed been the victim of this possible tsunami, one may wonder whether its fame would not have forced Poseidonius or Strabo to give its name. Perhaps it would be more appropriate here to consider that the submersion affected a less famous site, such as Berytus, whose reputation had remained discreet in the Hellenistic period, or a medium-sized conurbation that did not have the rank of city, which was nevertheless designated as a “city” and which was located near Sidon, for example Porphyreon-Jiye or another site of this type. In any case, and given that the earthquakes that are attested in Sidon are also attested in Tyre²⁰, we can assume that the latter was also affected by the catastrophe of 199/198 BC, without it being possible to assess the damage.

A specific earthquake is well attested for Tyre a little later in the Hellenistic period, in a little-known, late and delicately used source. Indeed, around the middle of the 7th century AD, John of Antioch wrote, based on the historians whose works he had at his disposal, a universal chronicle of which only fragments remain. Among these fragments, one mentions an event from the reign of the Seleucid Antiochus IX Cyzicenus (114/113-95 BC): "during his reign, because a great earthquake had taken place in the East, enormous numbers of Syrians perished, and Tyre on the coast was submerged by the sea, and also a comet - which shone for several days - announced his death"²¹. The association of the king's death with two extraordinary phenomena, the earthquake and the comet, manifests divine disfavor towards the sovereign and functions as the union of negative signs that announce this death²². It seems to me therefore possible to place the earthquake at a date close to the death of Antiochus, in 95 BC or shortly before. This first earthquake, certainly Tyrian and dated approximately ²³, is very clearly associated with a tsunami. It does not appear in the lists of Guidoboni. Until the 4th century AD, it has no known successor.

Footnotes

13. Justin, Abrégé des Histoires philippiques de Trogue-Pompée, XVIII, 3, 2-3 : Tyriorum gens condita a Phoenicibus fuit, qui terrae motu uexati relicto patriae solo… L’abrégé de Trogue-Pompée par Justin daterait du iie ou du iiie s.

14. G. W. Bowersock, « Tylos and Tyre : Bahrain in the Graeco-Roman World », in H. A. al Khalifa et M. Rice (éd.), Bahrain through the Ages : The Archaeology, Londres, New York et Sydney, 1986, p. 399-406 (= Studies on the Eastern Roman Empire. Social, Economic and Administrative History, Religion, Historiography, Goldbach, 1994, p. 371-384) ; J.-Fr. Salles, « Les Phéniciens de la mer Érythrée », AAE, 4, 1993, p. 170-209.

15. Quinte-Curce, Histoires, IV, 4, 20, éd. et trad. H. Bardon, Paris (CUF, t. 1), 1976, p. 63 : seu quia crebris motibus terrae, nam hoc quoque traditur, cultores eius fatigati noua et externa domicilia armis sibimet quaerere cogebantur. On considère que Quinte-Curce a écrit son ouvrage vers le milieu du ier s. apr. J.-C

16. Strabon, Géographie, XVI, 2, 23 : ἐνταῦθα δέ φασι πολυστέγους τὰς οἰκίας ὥστε καὶ τῶν ἐν Ῥώμῃ μᾶλλον · διὸ καὶ σεισμοὺς γενομένους ἀπολιπεῖν μικρὸν τοῦ ἄρδην ἀφανίσαι τὴν πόλιν. Ma traduction choisit le pluriel là où H. L. Jones (Londres, Loeb, vol. 7, 1930, p. 268-269) donne un singulier : « …when an earthquake took place, it lacked but little… ».

17. Sénèque, Questions naturelles, VI, 1, 13, éd. et trad. P. Oltramare, Paris (CUF, t. 2), 1961, p. 251 : Tyros aliquando infamis ruinis fuit. L’éditeur s’interroge, p. 251 n. 3, sur le mot aliquando, « autrefois », et pense qu’il renvoie à la destruction de la ville par Alexandre. C’est méconnaître le contexte et le sens d’un passage où Sénèque parle de l’écroulement des villes par des séismes ou par l’effet du temps et non de leur destruction volontaire.

18. Poséidonios, fr. 12a, éd. W. Theiler, Die Fragmente, Berlin et New York (Texte und Kommentare, 10, 1-2), 1982, voir 1, p. 27 ; Strabon, Géographie, I, 3, 16, éd. et trad. G. Aujac et Fr. Lasserre, Paris (CUF, t. 1, 1), 1969, p. 159 : Ἐν δὲ τῇ Φοινίκῇ φησὶ Ποσειδώνιος γενομένου σεισμοῦ καταποθῆναι πόλιν ἱδρυμένην ὑπὲρ Σιδῶνος, καὶ αὐτῆς δὲ Σιδῶνος σχεδόν τι τὰ δύο μέρη πεσεῖν.

19. Polybe, Histoires, II, 41, 7 ; Plutarque, Antoine, 60

20. L’inverse n’est pas certain : Tyr paraît touchée par des séismes qui ne s’étendent pas à Sidon, mais il faudrait vérifier si cette impression n’est pas liée à la distorsion des sources.

21. Deux éditions récentes republient les Fragments de Jean d’Antioche : Ioannis Antiocheni Fragmenta ex Historia chronica, éd. et trad. (italienne) U. Roberto, Berlin et New York (de Gruyter), 2005, voir fr. 145.2 (315-318), p. 244-245 ; Ioannis Antiocheni Fragmenta quae supersunt omnia, éd. et trad. (anglaise) S. Mariev, Berlin et New York (de Gruyter), 2008, voir ΑΠ. 98.23 (20-24), p. 146-147. Ici, le texte est commun aux deux éditeurs : ἐφ’ οὗ σεισμοῦ μεγίστου κατὰ τὴν ἕω γενομένου πολλαὶ μυριάδες τῶν Σύρων διεφθάρησαν ἥ τε κατὰ τὴν παράλιον Τύρος ὑπὸ τῆς θαλάσσης κατεκλύσθη, κομήτης τε ἐπὶ ὀλιγας ἡμέρας ἐκλάμψας τούτῳ μὲν τὸ τοῦ θανάτου προεσήμανε τέλος. Je donne ma traduction. Le brouillage chronologique présent dans la suite du texte de Jean d’Antioche – où Philippe Ier Philadelphe (95-84 av. J.-C.), un successeur immédiat d’Antiochos Cyzicène, a été réuni avec son fils Philippe II Philorhômaios (84-83 et 69-65 av. J.-C.), l’un des deux derniers rois séleucides, en un seul roi Philippe – ne doit pas conduire à récuser ce témoignage sur le séisme. Pour la chronologie de ces divers Séleucides, voir A. Houghton, C. C. Lorber et O. Hoover, Seleucid Coins. A Comprehensive Catalogue, II, Seleucus IV through Antiochus XIII, New York, Lancaster et Londres, 2002.

22. Sur ce thème, P.-L. Gatier, « Tremblements du sol et frissons des hommes, trois séismes en Orient sous Anastase », Tremblements de terre, histoire et archéologie, Valbonne, 1984, p. 87-94.

23. Le lien établi par U. Roberto, p. 244 de son édition de Jean d’Antioche, voir supra, n. 21, entre le tremblement de terre de ca 95 et celui – syrien sans autre précision – très destructeur, que Trogue-Pompée, chez Justin, Abrégé, XL, 2, 1, éd. F. Rühl, Leipzig (Teubner), 1886, p. 227, place à la fin du règne de Tigrane en Syrie (83 [?]-69 av. J.-C.), reste une hypothèse : Sed sicut ab hostibus tuta Syria fuit, ita terrae motu uastata est, quo centum septuaginta milia hominum et multae urbes perierunt. Quod prodigium mutationem rerum portendere aruspices responderunt. Igitur Tigrane a Lucullo uicto rex Syriae Antiochus, Cyziceni filius, ab eodem Lucullo appellatur. À nouveau, il y a une confusion entre deux rois, Antiochos X Eusébès (95-92 av. J.-C.), fils d’Antiochos Cyzicène, et Antiochos XIII Asiatique, son petit-fils, fils d’Eusébès. C’est cet Antiochos XIII Asiatique que Lucullus a mis sur le trône de Syrie en 69 av. J.-C. pour remplacer Tigrane. Malgré les points communs entre les deux récits, de Jean d’Antioche et de Justin, les séismes qu’ils signalent me semblent différents. Le second est connu de Guidoboni 1 (n° 061, p. 164-168), où la datation retenue, principalement d’après Justin, est ca 65 av. J.-C.

Earthquakes and tsunamis of late antiquity (4th century-early 7th century AD)

from Gatier (2011:263)

Guidoboni's catalogue includes three earthquakes during this period:

That of 303 or 304 AD, Guidoboni 1, No. 134 (p. 247), caused many building collapses in Tyre and Sidon and many deaths.

That of August 22, 502 AD, Guidoboni 1, No. 197 (pp. 311-312), affected the region from Berytus (Beirut) to Ptolemais (Acre) and led to the destruction of half of the cities of Tyre and Sidon²⁴.

That of July 9, 551 AD, J.-C., Guidoboni 1, n° 218 (pp. 332-336), affects the region from Tripolis (Tripoli) to Tyre and is accompanied by a tsunami. It is famous for the damage it caused in Berytus, in particular due to the tsunami, and on the entire coast between Berytus and Tripolis (Tripoli). In contrast, the sources give very little information on the destruction in Tyre and Sidon, while making Tyre the southern limit of the catastrophe.

Footnotes

24. J’ai montré que le premier hymne des Dix Vierges du poète Romanos le Mélode (éd. et trad. J. Grosdidier de Matons, Hymnes, t. 5, Paris [SC, 283], 1981, p. 296-327) avait été rédigé au printemps 503 à Béryte et qu’il apportait un témoignage sur les ravages du séisme de 502 dans le Sud de la province de Phénicie Paralienne, à Tyr, Ptolémaïs et au Mont Carmel. Guidoboni 1, p. 336, hésite à adopter mes vues plutôt que celles, inexactes, de mes prédécesseurs, dont Grosdidier de Matons, qui associaient cet hymne au séisme de 551, date qui a des conséquences importantes sur la chronologie du poète. Voir P.-L. Gatier, « Un séisme, élément de datation de l’œuvre de Romanos le Mélode », JS, 1983, p. 229-238.

Earthquakes of the medieval period (7th-13th century AD)

from Gatier (2011:263-265)

Guidoboni’s catalogues are silent for Tyre, in the period extending from 551 AD to 1063. It is not impossible, however, that one of the earthquakes attested for the areas designated by the sources, imprecisely, as Syria or Palestine affected Tyre, in a secondary capacity. Between the middle of the 11th century and 1291, the date of the capture of Tyre and its destruction by the Mamluks, five earthquakes are known that explicitly concern Tyre²⁵:

That of July-August 1063, Guidoboni 2, no. 028 (pp. 44-45), hit Tyre without the consequences being specified in the written sources. These mention a series of earthquakes, of which the one that struck Tripoli seems to be the most destructive, unless it was a single event whose epicentre was close to Tripoli.

The one of 26 June 1117, Guidoboni 2, no. 057 (pp. 130-131), is mentioned in the only Frankish sources, because it caused damage to the fortress of Scandélion-Iskanderun, which the Franks were then building on the coast south of Tyre to blockade the city that they had not yet taken. It must be assumed that Tyre itself, 12 km to the north, was affected by this earthquake.

The one of August-September 1157, Guidoboni 2, no. 080 (pp. 153-165), belongs to a long seismic sequence that affects a vast area of the Near East. Tripoli, Beirut, Sidon, Tyre and Acre are among the cities affected, but the damage in Tyre is not detailed in our sources.

The one of June 29, 1170, Guidoboni 2, no. 089 (pp. 189-210), is an event of considerable geographical extent and magnitude. Guidoboni hesitates between identifying a single earthquake or two. The Lebanese coast, in particular Tripoli, but also the interior were severely affected. In Tyre, the damage reported concerns the city in general and several towers, without major human losses, as William of Tyre indicates²⁶. There is no mention of Sidon in the sources.

That of May 20, 1202, Guidoboni 2, no. 097 (pp. 219-231), is of rare violence in Tyre and Acre, although it extends to a much larger area. The written sources are numerous and they agree on the seriousness of the disaster. In Tyre, all the ramparts collapse, except the outer barbicans; all but three towers were destroyed, as were churches, and one source even states that all the houses were destroyed. The human losses seem to have been considerable. Some of the funds raised for the Crusade were used to rebuild the walls of Tyre and Acre. The letter of October 1243 from Marsilio Zorzi (Marsilius Georgius), Venetian bailiff in the Levant, who was interested in Venetian possessions in Tyre, reports, more than thirty years after the event, Venetian buildings that had been destroyed in an earthquake and were probably not rebuilt²⁷. As for the Arab sources, which deal mainly with the defensive capabilities of the Franks, they speak mainly of the destruction of the walls, but one of them also indicates the collapse of a third of the city; the fortress of Tibnīn, in the hinterland, then in the hands of the Ayyubids, was also hit. There is no mention of Sidon in the various sources, perhaps because the city, then dismantled and deserted, was no longer a military issue.

No other earthquake is known in Tyre until 1291, and even until the 19th century in appearance.

Footnotes

M. Chéhab, Tyr à l’époque des Croisades, II, Histoire sociale, économique et religieuse, 2, Paris (BMB, 32), 1979, p. 705-712, réunit les textes sur les tremblements de terre de la période franque. Il semble que ceux qu’il attribue à un séisme de 1127 et à des séismes de 1200, 1201 et 1203-1204 doivent être placés à d’autres dates, ce que fait Guidoboni 2.

26. Guillaume de Tyr, Chronicon, XX, 18 (t. 2, p. 934-936) : Sed et Tyri, que est eiusdem prouincie metropolis famosissima, terremotus uiolentior, absque tamen ciuium periculo, turres quasdam robustissimas deiecit.

27. R. Röhricht, Regesta regni Hierosolymitani, I, Innsbruck, 1893, p. 289-297, n° 1114 (un extrait est cité dans Guidoboni 2, p. 224-225). Voir aussi M. Chéhab, Tyr à l’époque des Croisades, II, Histoire sociale, économique et religieuse, 1, Paris (BMB, 31), 1979, p. 274 279. Voir aussi P. Antaki-Masson, supra, p. 193 et 195.

A balance sheet

from Gatier (2011:265)

Not all written sources are of equal value and, moreover, some do not give many details. Their testimony must be used with caution. Let us remember that earthquakes are relatively frequent in Tyre and that the list provided here for the ancient and medieval periods probably does not account for all those that have occurred. The tsunamis that have been identified are few in number. If we do not take into account the possible tsunami of 199/198 BC²⁸, there remains that of ca. 95 BC and that of July 9, 551 AD, although in the latter case the phenomenon is attested in Berytus, but its extension to Tyre remains to be demonstrated. The most significant earthquakes, and perhaps the most violent, are in my opinion that of ca. 95 BC. J.-C., that of 303 or 304 A.D., that of August 22, 502 A.D. and that of May 20, 1202. Archaeologists, who often overestimate the role of earthquakes in the destruction of buildings, must not, however, neglect this role and the influence of disasters, including through preventive anti-seismic construction techniques. It is therefore necessary that the consequences of seismic activity be taken into account in present and future archaeological work²⁹.

Footnotes

28. Voir supra, n. 18 et 19.

29. D. Pringle, « The Crusader cathedral of Tyre », Levant, 33, 2001, p. 165-188, est l’un de ceux qui ne négligent pas, sans l’exagérer, l’impact des séismes