The traditional list of 12 kings, with reigns dated to 990–785 BC, is derived from the lost history of Menander of Ephesus as quoted by Josephus in Against Apion I.
[3] The dates for the reconstruction of Menander's Tyrian king list from Abibaal through Pygmalion are established in three places by three independent sources: a Biblical synchronism (Hiram's assistance to Solomon in building the Temple, from 967 BC onwards), an Assyrian record (tribute of Baal-Eser II/Balazeros II to Shalmaneser III in 841 BC), and a Roman historian (Pompeius Trogus, who placed the founding of Carthage or Dido's flight from her brother Pygmalion in the latter's seventh year of reign, in 825 BC, 72 years before the founding of Rome).
[6] The Neo-Assyrian Empire established its control over the area and ruled through vassals who are named in Assyrian records.
In the 560s the monarchy was overthrown, and an oligarchic government established, headed by "judges" or shoftim (cf.
According to Josephus, Hiram's reign extended to the fourteenth year of Cyrus', ascension to power in Babylon.