An ancient territory of the Phoenicians, roughly equivalent to modern-day Lebanon, the northern coast of Israel, and western Syria.
The name “Phoenicia” appears in some sources as “Phenice.” The term “Phoenicia” can also be used to refer to the colonies founded by the Phoenicians throughout the Mediterranean. The word derives from Greek; it was used by the Greeks to refer to the coastal Canaanites with whom they had trade relations.
Origins
The Phoenicians were essentially the northwestern branch of that people known as Canaanites, a group of interrelated West Semitic peoples who immigrated in present-day Israel, Lebanon, and Syria at the dawn of recorded history. The exact date of settlement is uncertain, but it is known that trade relations between the coastal Canaanites and Egypt were established by the 2800s B.C.E. During much of the second millennium B.C.E., the Phoenicians fell under Egyptian domination. Nonetheless, they retained local autonomy and it was during this period that the great centers of Phoenician civilization, including Sidon, Tyre, Berytus (Beirut), Gebal (Byblos), Arvad (Aradus), Ugarit, and Tarabulus (Tripoli) became major urban centers.
By the mid-1200s B.C.E., the Phoenicians were well known as the master navigators and maritime traders of the Mediterranean. They quickly filled the void created by the downfall of the Minoan civilization. Phoenicia was organized into city-states. A king (melekh) ruled each state. At first Sidon, probably the oldest such state, was dominant (e.g., in the Bible, the Phoenicians are referred to as “Sidonians”), but as time went on Tyre outshined its neighbor. Besides their home cities, the Phoenicians founded colonies and trading posts wherever they stopped to trade, especially in Cyprus, the Aegean, and North Africa. Some of these, such as Kittim on Cyprus and Carthage and Utica on the North African coast (ninth century B.C.E.), became fabulously successful city-states in their own right.
Once a major trading outpost of the Phoenicians, Carthage was sacked and destroyed by the Romans in 146 B.C.E., as depicted in this highly stylized French manuscript from the fifteenth century. (The Art Archive/Museé Condé Chantilly/Dagli Orti)
Phoenician Dominance
During the 1200s B.C.E., some northern Phoenician centers, such as Ugarit, were sacked and destroyed by the Sea Peoples, one of whom, the Philistines, settled along the coast of what is now Israel. Meanwhile, Israelite tribes seized the southern Canaanite urban centers. The Phoenician core states, however, appear to have emerged relatively unscathed from these events. With the waning of Egyptian power in the 1100s B.C.E., Phoenician seamen dominated the Mediterranean Sea. They sailed as far as the Dardanelles and may even have established a regular trade route to Britain to trade for Cornish tin. Some scholars have gone as far as to suggest that they even sailed down the western coast of Africa, around the Cape of Good Hope, and reached the East Indies. Some scholars believe that Phoenician sailors even reached as far as the New World.
The wares carried by these intrepid traders were extremely diverse. They enjoyed a virtual monopoly on Lebanon cedar, a favored building and decorative material (King Solomon of Israel imported huge quantities of this wood when he built the Temple in Jerusalem). They were famous for exporting a purple dye (Tyrian purple) obtained from certain shellfish that was in high demand among the noble classes throughout the ancient world. Indeed, the word “Phoenicia” is the Greek word for “purple.” Phoenician artisans and craftsmen were known for their excellent work; many extremely detailed ivory carvings have been unearthed, and Phoenician architects were sought after for building projects in Egypt, Israel, and elsewhere in the Levant.
Culture and Religion
The Phoenician culture was more or less identical with that of other West Semitic peoples; indeed, they are indistinguishable from the southern Canaanites in every way except for their development of a maritime trading empire. The most popular gods were Baal, a storm god and a symbol of masculinity; Astarte, the goddess of fertility and feminine sexuality; and El, a mysterious creator-deity who may have been related to the monotheistic God of the ancient Hebrews. Astarte (sometimes referred to as Tanit) has been connected with many other fertility goddesses, including Ishtar in Mesopotamia, Isis in Egypt, and Aphrodite among the Greeks. Her worship included ritual sexual intercourse between prominent community members and her priestesses. Many minor deities were also worshiped. Sacrifice of firstborn animals was seen as a way of ensuring the blessings of these gods and goddesses; in many cases, the sacrifice of firstborn human children was also practiced (particularly in times of national emergency).
The Phoenician language (called Punic by the Romans) was more or less indistinguishable from that of other West Semitic peoples; indeed, linguists have determined that Phoenician, southern Canaanite, ancient Hebrew, Edomite, Moabite, and Ammonite were all basically dialects of the same language. Perhaps the greatest lasting accomplishment of the Phoenicians was their development of a standard alphabetic script, which was adopted around the Levant and later modified by the Greeks. This system greatly simplified writing, which had previously been done in cumbersome cuneiform and hieroglyphic scripts. The Phoenician alphabet allowed the development of both Hebrew and Greek literature and was thus a key factor in the early emergence of Western civilization.
Decline and Fall
Most of the Phoenician centers survived the Assyrian invasions of the Levant intact. However, in the mid-500s B.C.E. they submitted to the Achaemenid Persians. The Persians allowed the local kings to remain in power and retain local autonomy, but over time the Phoenicians were gradually absorbed into the Persian empire. Phoenician sailors, engineers, and artists all figured prominently in Persian service. The bulk of the Persian navy in the Mediterranean was composed of Phoenician ships; though Phoenician mercenaries also served Persia’s enemies.
The Phoenicians resisted Alexander the Great for several years but eventually fell to the Macedonians, with Tyre being sacked after a long siege in 332 B.C.E. With the fall of Persian dominance and the rise of the Hellenistic empires, the power and importance of the Phoenicians all but disappeared. Greek and Aramaic replaced the ancient Phoenician language and the main modes of discourse in the Levant. The Phoenicians became just one more group within the melting pot of Near Eastern Hellenism. The main cities of the Phoenicians continued to be major urban and trade centers well into the Roman period, and many are still in existence today (most of Lebanon’s coastal cities are built on the ruins of ancient Phoenician towns). Nonetheless, the distinctive Phoenician culture was gone and survived only in its westernmost colonies.
Phoenician Colonies
Cyprus was probably one of the first areas settled by Phoenician colonists. Kittim (Kition in Greek) became the principal Phoenician colony on Cyprus. Malta and several areas of southern Anatolia also boasted minor Phoenician colonies. Phoenician settlers, mostly from Tyre and Sidon, began establishing colonies in Iberia, the Balearic Islands, North Africa, and Sicily by the beginning of the first millennium B.C.E. These colonists were for the most part uninterested in settling large tracts of land. Instead, they sought anchorages and ports to serve as stopovers on the maritime trade routes from Phoenicia to the Iberian Peninsula, where Phoenician traders acquired silver and other valuable metals. Unlike the many Greek colonies that cropped up in southern Italy and Iberia, most of the Phoenician colonies never reached any great size. The Phoenicians, for the most part, lacked the manpower to found huge colonies. Most of the Phoenician colonies were offshore islands or easily defensible areas with sheltered beaches.
According to tradition, the oldest Phoenician colony in Iberia was Gades (modern-day Cadiz), founded in 1110 B.C.E.; Utica, the first colony in Africa, was said to have been founded around 1101 B.C.E. However, there is no evidence of extensive settlement before the ninth century. Carthage (from Kiriyat Hadasht or “The New City”), which was destined to become the most successful of the Phoenician colonies and the master of the western Mediterranean, was founded in the late 800s B.C.E.; Greek artifacts suggesting extensive trade with the Hellenic mainland have been unearthed from shortly after that date. Later colonies were established at Hadrumetum, Tipassa, Lixus, and Mogador; Phoenician settlers also established themselves at Motya in Sicily and Nora in Sardinia, among other places.
The trade volume from these western settlements was enormous. The mineral wealth of Iberia was so great that silver transported from Spain to the Levant depressed the value of silver bullion in the Assyrian empire by a substantial degree around 700 B.C.E. Family firms based in Byblos, Tyre, or Sidon who placed representatives in the colonies to look after their affairs carried much of the trade out initially. Following the subjugation of Phoenicia and the resulting independence of the colonies, many of these representatives founded successful trading clans in their own right; these mercantile families dominated the governments of most of the colonies.
Because of their generally small size, the Phoenician colonies remained politically dependent on their homeland. However, the rise of Babylonia and the increasing pressure from Greek settlements caused the colonies of the western Mediterranean to look less to Phoenicia and more to one another for support.
Carthage
Carthage was founded by émigrés from Tyre. According to legend, Dido, a Tyrian princess, who fled from her brother following a dynastic struggle, led them. The city was built on a triangular peninsula that provided for easy defense and safe anchorage.
In 580 B.C.E., several Greek cities in Sicily banded together to expel the Phoenicians from Motya and Panormus (Palermo). Under Carthaginian leadership, the western Phoenicians successfully defended their brethren from the Greeks; several decades later, in alliance with the Etruscans, Carthage and its allies and dependents prevented the Greeks from settling in Corsica and locked the Greeks out from the lucrative trade with southern Spain.
Carthage owed much of its prosperity to its domination of the Phoenician colonies in southern Spain; these provided the precious metals and mineral wealth that the Carthaginians traded abroad for finished goods, foodstuffs, and other necessities. Carthaginian artisans also produced handicrafts that were highly sought after in Italy; Romans considered Carthaginian furniture and cushions to be luxuries.
Carthage was initially a monarchy; however, the king was overthrown in the early 400s and the government was placed in the hands of several oligarchic councils, presided over by two suffettes (judges) in a manner not dissimilar to the consuls of Republican Rome. The Carthaginian navy dominated the seas west of Italy. Its army, however, was largely composed of Berber, Celtic, Iberian, and Greek mercenaries. As time went on and agriculture became more widely practiced, struggles ensued between the maritime trading families and the wealthy landowners for domi nance in the councils. This disunity was a factor in Carthage’s eventual downfall.
Carthaginian imperialism created a great deal of resentment among the peoples of the western Mediterranean, even among other Phoenician colonies. This resentment was exploited by the rising power of Rome. From the middle of the third century to the middle of the second century B.C.E., Carthage became involved in a series of wars with Rome. These Punic Wars featured some remarkable and ingenious victories by Carthaginian forces. In the end, however, all the wars ended in Carthaginian defeats. First, Carthage lost control over Sicily, then Sardinia and Iberia, and finally, in 146 B.C.E., Carthage itself was sacked and destroyed by the Romans (it was later rebuilt as a Roman colony), and the remnants of its empire fell under Roman domination. The remaining Phoenician colonies were absorbed by Rome one by one over the next few decades and were thoroughly Romanized. The Punic language continued to be spoken in some areas well into the Dark Ages, particularly among the lower classes, though it was gradually replaced by Latin and then, in the 600s C.E., by Arabic.
Brian M. Gottesman
See also: Africa; Alphabet, Phoenician; Etruscans; Mediterranean Sea; Punic Wars.
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