Baalshillem I

Baalshillem I (also transliterated Baalchillem, meaning "recompense of Baal"; ) was a Phoenician King of Sidon (c. 450 – c. 426 BC), and a vassal of the Achaemenid Empire. He was succeeded by his son Abdamon to the throne of Sidon.

Etymology
The name Baalshillem is the Romanized form of the Phoenician (BʿLŠLM), meaning "recompense of Baal". Alternative spellings of the king's name include Baalchillem.

Chronology
The absolute chronology of the kings of Sidon from the dynasty of Eshmunazar I onward has been much discussed in the literature; traditionally placed in the course of the fifth century BC, inscriptions of this dynasty have been dated back to an earlier period on the basis of numismatic, historical and archaeological evidence. The most complete work addressing the dates of the reigns of these Sidonian kings is by the French historian Josette Elayi who shifted away from the use of biblical chronology. Elayi used all the available documentation of the time and included inscribed Tyrian seals and stamps excavated by the Lebanese archaeologist Maurice Chehab in 1972 from Jal el-Bahr, a neighborhood in the north of Tyre, ⁣ Phoenician inscriptions discovered by the French archaeologist Maurice Dunand in Sidon in 1965, and the systematic study of Sidonian coins which were the first coins to bear minting dates in antiquity based on the years of reign of the Sidonian kings.

Baalshillem I was the first among Sidonian monarchs to mark coins with issuing dates corresponding with the years of his reign as of year 30 which corresponds to 372 BC. Elayi established that Baalshillem I's year of accession was 450 BC and that he reigned until 426 BC.

Historical context
In 539 BC, Phoenicia fell under the Achaemenid rule; it was divided into four vassal kingdoms: Sidon, Tyre, Byblos and Arwad. Eshmunazar I, a priest of Astarte and the founder of his namesake dynasty was enthroned King of Sidon around the time of the Achaemenid conquest of the Levant. During the first phase of Achaemenid rule, Sidon flourished and reclaimed its former standing as Phoenicia's chief city. In the mid 5th century BC, Eshmunazar's dynasty was succeeded by that of Baalshillem I; this dynastic turnover coincides with the time by which Sidon began to independently mint its own coinage bearing the images of its reigning kings.

Epigraphic and numismatic sources
The name of Baalshillem I is known from a votive statue of a "temple boy" offered to Eshmun, the Phoenician god of healing, by the great-grandson of King Ballshillem I, his namesake Ballshillem II. The base of the Baalshillem temple boy statue bears a Phoenician inscription known as KAI 281. The inscription reads: "This (is the) statue that Baalshillem, son of King Ba'na, king of the Sidonians, son of King Abdamun, king of the Sidonians, son of King Baalshillem, king of the Sidonians, gave to his lord Eshmun at the 'Ydll' Spring. May he bless him." The statue is of note because its inscription provides the names of four kings of Sidon from the Baalshillem I dynasty. The statue also represents the young future king Abdashtart I, who may have been five or six months of age at the time of the dedication of the statue.

Baalshillem I is also known from the coins he struck under his reign. The coins dating from the reign of the Baalshillem I dynasty show the abbreviated names of the respective kings, a custom of the Sidonian royalty. King Baalshillem I's name is abbreviated as B. The obverse of the coins of Baalshillem I usually showed a galley in front of Sidonian wall fortifications.

Genealogy
Baalshillem I's dynasty succeeded that of Eshmunazar I; his heir was his son Abdamun.