Reign

The Bible says that he allied himself with King Solomon of Israel, the upcoming power of the region. Through the alliance with Solomon, Hiram ensured himself access to the major trade routes to Egypt, Arabia and Mesopotamia. The two kings also joined forces in starting a trade route over the Red Sea, connecting the Israelite harbour of Ezion-Geber with a land called Ophir.

But [Hiram had always been a friend of Solomon's father, David.
(חירם Chiyram היה hayah כל kol יום yowm היה hayah אהב 'ahab דוד David)

Now Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants to Solomon when he heard that they had anointed him king in place of his father, for Hiram always loved David. (1 Kings 5:1 ESV)

Hiram’s beginning date is derived from the statement of Flavius Josephus, citing both Tyrian court records and the writings of Menander, relating that 143 years passed between the start of construction of Solomon’s Temple until the founding of Carthage (or until Dido’s flight that led to its construction). Josephus also related that Hiram’s reign began 155 years and 8 months before this event, and that Temple construction began in his twelfth year, 143 years before the building of Carthage. The redundancy inherent in these multiple ways of expressing the total years (the 143 years is mentioned twice, and the 155 years minus 12 years once) has guaranteed that all extant copies of Josephus/Menander that contain these passages give 155 years and 8 months between the start of Hiram’s reign and the foundation of Carthage. (One copy has 155 years and 18 months, but this is an obvious error for 155 years and eight months.) Modern historians have therefore had confidence in the 155-year figure and have used it to date Hiram’s reign.

However, classical authors give two dates for the Carthage’s founding: 825 BC and 814 BC. The 814 date is derived from the Greek historian Timaeus (c. 345-260 BC) and the 825 date from the writings of Pompeius Trogus (1st century BC). The 814 date is more generally accepted, and so earlier historians calculated the start of Hiram’s reign as occurring in 814 + 155 = 869 BC. See the Pygmalion article for the proposal of J. M. Peñuela that 825 BC was the date Dido left Tyre, but she did not start construction of Carthage until 11 years later, in 814 BC.

In 1951, an inscription was published that showed that Shalmaneser III of Assyria received tribute, in 841 BC, from a certain Baa‘li-maanzer of Tyre. The name Baa‘li-maanzer was interpreted by eminent philologists such as Frank Moore Cross as referring to Baal-Eser II/Balazeros, grandfather of Pygmalion. According to Josephus/Manetho, it was during Pygmalion’s seventh year that Dido fled from Tyre. Consequently, the dates of Pygmalion have always been computed based on the date calculated for Dido’s flight, which was assumed to take place in the same that she founded Carthage. But when 814 was taken as Pygmalion’s seventh year, the dates for his father and grandfather, as based on the best texts of Josephus/Manetho, were not compatible with his grandfather being on the throne in 841 BC and giving tribute to Shalmaneser in that year. For this reason, several scholars reexamined the 825 date for Dido’s flight (Pygmalion’s seventh year) and found that 825 BC was consistent with the Assyrian inscription. For further details of the scholars involved and their reasoning, see the Pygmalion article.

Measuring the 155 years from 825 BC gave a new date for the first year of Hiram: 825 + 155 = 980 BC. 980 BC also proved an excellent match with another date, one calculated from the Scriptural texts related to the reign of Solomon. Based on Edwin R. Thiele’s widely accepted date of 931/930 BC for the division of the kingdom after the end of Solomon’s 40-year reign, Solomon’s fourth year, when construction of the Temple began (1 Kings 6:1) can be calculated as starting in Tishri (roughly October) of 968 BC. Josephus, citing both Tyrian court records and the writings of Menander, says that it was in Hiram’s 12th year that he sent assistance to Solomon for building the Temple. With 980 as the starting date for Hiram, his twelfth year would be 969 or 968 BC, in excellent agreement with the Biblical date for this event.

As pointed out by William Barnes, the date for the start of Temple construction using the Tyrian data is derived “wholly independently” of the way that date is derived using the Scriptural data. It is this consideration, plus the evidence of the tribute from Baa‘li-maanzer/Baal-Eser II to Shalmaneser III, that has led to the adoption of the chronologies of Frank M. Cross and other scholars for the Tyrian kings in the present article. Hiram’s first year is therefore accepted as 980 BC instead of the 969 BC that was favored before publication of the Shalmaneser inscription.

Sarcophagus

Freemason tradition

References

• Vance, Donald R. (March 1994) "Literary Sources for the History of Palestine and Syria: The Phœnician Inscriptions" The Biblical Archaeologist 57(1) , pp. 2-19
• C.R.Conder and H.H.Kitchener, The Survey of Western Palestine I. Galilee, London 1881, S. 61-64
• See, e.g., "History of Masonry"