Provender was furnished for forty
thousand horses, and a great number of dromedaries. Yet the population
of the country did not, at first at least, feel these burdens: _Judah
and Israel were many, as the sand which is by the sea in multitude,
eating and drinking, and making merry_.
The foreign treaties of Solomon were as wisely directed to secure the
profound peace of his dominions. He entered into a matrimonial alliance
with the royal family of Egypt, whose daughter he received with great
magnificence; and he renewed the important alliance with the king of
Tyre.[27] The friendship of this monarch was of the highest value in
contributing to the great royal and national work, the building of the
Temple. The cedar timber could only be obtained from the forests of
Lebanon: the Sidonian artisans, celebrated in the Homeric poems, were
the most skilful workmen in every kind of manufacture, particularly in
the precious metals.
[Footnote 27: After inserting the correspondence between King Solomon
and King Hiram of Tyre, according to I Kings, v., Josephus asserts that
copies of these letters were not only preserved by his countrymen, but
also in the archives of Tyre.
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