This tablet in modern Libya shows Latin and Phoenician, two of the world’s most influential alphabets.

Chapter 5

The Effects of the Phoenician Trade Routes

The effect Phoenician trade routes had on the culture, politics, religion, and economy of the Mediterranean was wide ranging and significant. The goods and services the Phoenicians traded in shaped the way cultures interpreted social status, access to reading and writing, the way people worshipped, and what they knew about the world around them. The Phoenicians also expanded the reach of the Mediterranean empires through expansion of their trade routes, reaching into modern Spain, Africa, and possibly western Europe. In those interactions, they brought Mediterranean traditions to indigenous people, introducing them to elaborate rituals that had been confined to the region but eventually influenced the way power was defined across the ancient world.

The Phoenicians also played another crucial role in the ancient Mediterranean, assisting in recovery from the Late Bronze Age Collapse and helping cultures bridge the Bronze Age and the Iron Age. Phoenician technology in ship making, navigation, writing, and the arts helped push mankind forward, ushering in adaptations on their ideas that came to define the civilizations with which they interacted. Although not the largest or most powerful force in their time, the Phoenicians were an influential and crucial piece of the regional and global system that evolved in the second and first millennia BCE.

In this chapter, we will learn more about the way the Phoenicians shaped the ancient world and the lasting legacy of their trade routes. We’ll explore the way trade helped move mankind forward, influence the empires of the Mediterranean, and lay the foundation on which those empires rose in the wake of the Late Bronze Age Collapse.

The Late Bronze Age Collapse

As previously mentioned, the Late Bronze Age Collapse was a catastrophic wave of destruction, famine, and invasion that left the empires of the Mediterranean weakened and divided. In Greece, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Anatolia, the mysterious and complex combination of foreign wars, food shortages, political infighting, and natural disaster led to the destruction of major cities. These factors also caused the loss of central authority and a disruption in what had been widespread cultural advancement. Over the course of about one century between 1200 BCE and 1100 BCE, each of these empires experienced setbacks that threatened their survival and could have changed the course of history.

Yet Phoenicia was largely unimpacted. This could be due to a few reasons. Evidence exists that the Sea Peoples, who invaded and destroyed cities in Egypt and Mesopotamia, allied with the Phoenicians. While cities and villages were being abandoned and destroyed across the ancient world, Phoenician cities were untouched. This could also be due to the small size of Phoenicia and the independent nature of its city-states, which made it easier for city-states to hold territory. The Phoenicians were also not an agricultural people. They lived in an area of the Levant without arable land. As such, crops the Phoenicians grew were able to thrive in adverse climates, making them resilient and able to stand up to environmental changes of that time. Regardless of why they were not impacted significantly, the Phoenicians were well placed to make the most of the suddenly cleared field of the Mediterranean. They filled a vacuum that was left when other civilizations retreated.

The Late Bronze Age Collapse opened a unique opportunity for the small Phoenician city-states to take advantage of established trade routes. The Assyrians and the Mycenaeans had dominated trade in the Mediterranean and Middle East prior to the Late Bronze Age Collapse. This means that there were established land and limited sea routes that the Phoenicians could use as a foundation for the much more expansive trade network they built over the course of centuries.

Trade brought great wealth to the Phoenicians, but it also helped the empires surrounding them recover from the Late Bronze Age Collapse. Phoenician trade routes expanded gradually, creating networks of communication and economic cooperation across civilizations. Access to raw materials, like wood or metals, helped cultures kick-start their stagnant building and cultural undertakings. Phoenicia was also able to create exchanges of low-value goods for high-value goods. They essentially used supply and demand to ensure empires and civilizations had access to goods they needed in exchange for those they had in excess. In this way, trade was a crucial part of the rebound following the Late Bronze Age Collapse. Trade helped usher in stability and growth for many of the civilizations in the Mediterranean.

The Bronze Age vs. the Iron Age

Phoenician trade routes grew during a time of profound change in the ancient world. The Bronze Age lasted from 3300 BCE to around 1200 BCE in the East and around 3200 BCE to 600 BCE in Europe. It came to an end as the Phoenicians were becoming a trade power. This gave way to the Iron Age, which spanned from 1200 BCE to 500 BCE in the East and 1200 BCE to 1 BCE in Europe. The shift was gradual but important. It marked large changes in the way people lived, waged wars, created art, and interacted with the world around them.

The Bronze Age ended slowly. Some cultures adapted to iron-based weaponry and technology more quickly than others. This gave them an advantage in warfare, allowing once small cultures to claim territory from larger powers, such as the Hittites. The Assyrians also lost ground to opponents fighting with iron. However, they eventually went on to reclaim their dominance in the Middle East. Iron also allowed for widespread changes in agriculture, with tools that were more efficient and stronger than prior bronze tools.

The Iron Age ushered in other changes in culture, such as shifts in artistic styles, architecture, and power dynamics. The Phoenicians were dominant in the metal trade. Thus, their role was important and complex as the use of bronze gave way to the use of iron. Iron, tin, and copper (the latter two used to make bronze) were some of Phoenicia’s largest trade commodities. These metals were traded in raw forms and used to make goods in Phoenicia before export. The hunt for iron also led to Phoenician expansion. Iberia became a key source for the important metal.

The period of Phoenician trade dominance overlapped with the period of transition between the late Bronze Age and the early Iron Age. In a way, this overlap means that the Phoenicians were trading with partners in two different time periods. This is particularly true considering that the Phoenicians had trade partners outside of the Mediterranean and in Europe, where the Bronze Age did not end until 600 BCE. As one of the driving forces of cross-cultural exchange in that time, the Phoenicians played an indirect but important role in helping cultures shape each other.

Culture

The Phoenicians had a significant impact on the culture of the Mediterranean, as we’ve discussed in previous chapters. From writing to social status to art, the Phoenicians facilitated cultural changes.They did so through both their own exported goods and through communication between far-spread areas of the ancient world. The cultural influence of Phoenician trade included everything from religion to clothing. It had a lasting impact throughout the centuries, even after the Phoenicians were no longer the dominant traders in the region.

One of the most significant examples of the cultural influence of the Phoenicians is their presence in the writings of other civilizations. Across the ancient world, and most notably in the works of Homer and Herodotus, we’re given a secondhand view of how other people saw the Phoenicians.

In his Histories, Herodotus writes about the role of Phoenicia in shaping trade relationships that came to define the ancient world. In Book I, he says:

The Phoenicians, who had formerly dwelt on the shores of the Persian Gulf, having migrated to the Mediterranean and settled in the parts which they now inhabit, began at once, they say, to adventure on long voyages, freighting their vessels with the wares of Egypt and Assyria.

Herodotus also wrote about the Phoenician alphabet being introduced to the Greeks in Book V:

These Phoenicians who came with Cadmus and of whom the Gephyraeans were a part brought with them to Hellas, among many other kinds of learning, the alphabet, which had been unknown before this, I think, to the Greeks. As time went on the sound and the form of the letters were changed. At this time the Greeks who were settled around them were for the most part Ionians, and after being taught the letters by the Phoenicians, they used them with a few changes of form. In so doing, they gave to these characters the name of Phoenician.

Harbors like this one in Sidon were the heart of Phoenician trade. Great cities were built around them.

Yet Herodotus was not the only writer to refer to the Phoenicians. In the Odyssey and the Iliad, Homer frequently mentions the Phoenicians. Most notably, for Homer the Phoenicians were both cunning traders and able to produce luxurious goods of high value. In the Odyssey, he refers to them as, “The famous sea-dogs, sharp bargainers too, the holds of their black ship brimful with a hoard of flashy baubles.”

In the Iliad, the Phoenicians appear again, this time as the source of an unparalleled silver bowl:

For the next event, the quarter mile, Achilles offered a silver winebowl of six gallons. Never a mixing bowl in all the world could match its beauty: artisans of Sidon had lavished art upon it. Phoenicians had brought it by sea and, mooring ship in a roadstead, had conferred the bowl on Thoas Euneos, son of Jason, later gave it as ransom to Patroclos for Lykaon, son of Priam. Now at his old friend’s funeral Achilles put the bowl down, as first prize, for that man who should prove the faster runner.

Technology

Technology was a huge part of the Phoenician trade network. Technological and scientific advances in ship making and navigation gave Phoenician traders an advantage in the harsh Mediterranean. This allowed them to expand their network beyond any established before their time. As discussed previously, Phoenicians developed two types of ships that helped them master the seas. Phoenician galloi ships were tub-like and rounded, sitting higher in the water with weights in the back and protected storage holds for cargo. These ships featured oars for steering and a loose hanging sail that could catch the wind from any direction. Their warships featured a metal spike on the hull that could be used to ram other ships, as well as oars and a decorative horse head that adorned each end. These ships would go on to influence Greek and Roman ship making. The Phoenicians’ discovery of the North Star and navigation methods also helped make sea travel more reliable and safe.

Our understanding of Phoenician ships comes from artistic representations, records of Egyptians and other empires with which the Phoenicians traded, and shipwrecks discovered around the Mediterranean. The Balawat Gate, built around 850 BCE, depicts Phoenician ships bearing timber and metal. The Greek writer Xenophon tells us that the ships were extremely efficient in terms of how they were laid out:

I think that the best and most perfect arrangement of things that I ever saw was when I went to look at the great Phoenician sailing-vessel; for I saw the largest amount of naval tackling separately disposed in the smallest stowage possible. For a ship, as you well know, is brought to anchor, and again got under way, by a vast number of wooden implements and of ropes and sails the sea by means of a quantity of rigging, and is armed with a number of contrivances against hostile vessels, and carries about with it a large supply of weapons for the crew, and, besides, has all the utensils that a man keeps in his dwelling-house, for each of the messes. In addition, it is laden with a quantity of merchandise which the owner carries with him for his own profit. Now all the things which I have mentioned lay in a space not much bigger than a room which would conveniently hold ten beds.

Shipwrecks have been key to our understanding of Phoenician trade, giving us a look at what goods ships carried, how ships were built, and how relations played out between traders and trade partners. Shipwrecks have provided historians with concrete examples of the artwork traded throughout the ancient world, including ivory tusks and stone altars. They also provide a look at how the crew lived. According to historian Michael Polzer, who examined a shipwreck at Bajo de la Campana, the wreck was remarkable for one specific reason:

One of the puzzling aspects of this shipwreck excavation was that we found very few objects that can be categorized as shipboard equipment or personal effects of the crew. Whetstones and pan-balance weights are best interpreted as belonging to a craftsman or merchant on board the vessel, and the charring around the nozzles of the only intact lamp we recovered indicates that it was used aboard the ship. But there is little else that speaks to the Phoenician sailors themselves.

The lack of personal effects could be due to the use of trade posts and colonies, which allowed ships to travel primarily by day rather than take long multiday journeys. Sailing primarily by daylight made it possible for Phoenician sailors to keep the coastline in view. This was a simple and effective method of navigation that helped protect their wares from threats, such as pirates.

Colonies

Colonies were one of the most direct lasting legacies of the Phoenician trade routes. Phoenicia was not a military power in the sense of larger empires. As such, Phoenicia did not conquer outlying areas in order to set up colonies. Instead, the Phoenicians established small outposts and cities along their trade routes. These functioned as markets, factories, and stopping-off points for ships. Some of them went on to be powers in their own right. Some remain important cities today.

It is unclear when colonization started, due in part to the fact that many colonies remained small and eventually vanished. Like Phoenician trade routes, Phoenician colonial growth was focused on the south Mediterranean and mirrored Greek colonization in the north. Some accounts seem to speak of colonies as early as the twelfth and tenth centuries BCE. Yet the first physical evidence of Phoenician colonies dates them to around the eighth century BCE.

The first Phoenician colonies were small outposts on the coast. They had shallow harbors ideal for use as ports. Some of these developed more permanent structures and markets, becoming regional trading powers capable of expanding Phoenician trade deeper into Africa and Europe. Colonies were used as production sites for Tyrian dye, glass, and other goods the Phoenicians were famous for producing. Many became sources of goods like metals and food. Slaves were also captured from the areas around the colonies or sold to traders at the outpost markets.

Because the Phoenicians were not interested in conquering the indigenous people of any given area, they were able to develop interesting relationships with those surrounding their colonies. Iberia, for instance, had previously not had relations with the empires of the Mediterranean. Phoenicians brought gifts and offerings traditionally given to the rulers of Egypt or Mesopotamia there. This introduced new practices and goods to these cultures, creating cross-cultural exchange through trade. It also allowed the Phoenicians to carry out their ultimate goal: establishing relationships that allowed them to gain access to goods, services, and markets wherever they could.

Diodorus of Sicily wrote in the first century BCE about Malta’s founding as a Phoenician colony:

It possesses many harbours which offer exceptional advantage, and its inhabitants are blest in their possessions; for it has artisans skilled in every manner of craft… and the dwellings on the island are worthy of note, being ambitiously constructed with cornices and finishes in stucco with unusual workmanship. The island is a colony planted by the Phoenicians, who, as they extended their trade in the western ocean, found in it a place of safe retreat, since it was well supplied with harbours and lay out in the open sea; and this is the reason why the inhabitants of this island, since they received assistance in many respects through the sea-merchants, shot up quickly in their manner of living and increased in renown.

The people of Tyre, Sidon, and Byblos were among the most active colonizers of Phoenicia. The Phoenicians established colonies along their Mediterranean trade routes, from Cyprus as early as the eleventh century BCE to Iberia in the tenth century BCE. Carthage, as discussed in previous chapters, is one of the most famous and important colonies established by the Phoenicians. It enjoyed growth and prosperity, as well as popular support. In 340 BCE, Aristotle wrote about Carthage:

The Carthaginians are also considered to have an excellent form of government, which differs from that of any other state in several respects, though it is in some very like the Spartan. Indeed, all three states—the Spartan, the Cretan, and the Carthaginian—nearly resemble one another, and are very different from any others. Many of the Carthaginian institutions are excellent. The superiority of their constitution is proved by the fact that the common people remain loyal to the constitution. The Carthaginians have never had any rebellion worth speaking of, and have never been under the rule of a tyrant.

Punic Wars

Carthage was ruled by a series of monarchs. (According to legend, Queen Dido was the first.) Under the monarchs’ leadership, Carthage grew into a powerful empire after Phoenicia lost dominance in the region. But Carthage clashed with Rome numerous times, including during the three Punic Wars. This series of conflicts took place between 264 BCE and 146 BCE. The Punic Wars are considered by historians to be some of the largest seen at that point in history.

The wars were fought over rivalry for territory, as both empires expanded into the Mediterranean and Iberia. The First Punic War was fought between 264 BCE and 241 BCE, spanning both land and sea. It began when the Mamertines on Sicily asked for Carthaginian assistance against a local aggressor. The Carthaginians arrived and built a garrison to help. Yet the Mamertines betrayed them and called on the Romans to help fight against Carthage. In the Second Punic War, fought on land between 218 BCE and 201 BCE, the Carthaginian commander Hannibal famously rode elephants over the Alps. The Third Punic War, between 149 BCE and 146 BCE, was a thorough defeat of Carthage at the hands of Rome. It involved a prolonged siege of the city and its eventual destruction.

Hannibal brought elephants over the Alps to fight Rome. He is one of Carthage’s most famous rulers.

Carthage was a coastal colony of Phoenicia that became an important kingdom after Phoenicia lost independence.

Others, such as Ebusus (Ibiza), Panormo (Palermo), and Hippo Diarrhytus (Bizerte), went on to become cities in the modern era. Although Phoenician religion and trade were a large part of the lives of those who lived in these colonies, the local culture also influenced the way Phoenicia developed. These outposts were truly the best examples of how Phoenicia interacted with the world.

Trade Expansion

The Phoenicians didn’t invent large-scale regional trade; they made use of existing trade routes. But what they did accomplish was expanding the scope of trade across the ancient world. From China in the East to Britain and Africa in the West, Phoenician traders created what could be called one of the world’s first global economic networks. Some historians believe the Phoenicians may have reached South America. However, there is little evidence of this beyond inscriptions.

While focused primarily on economic opportunity, the Phoenicians were some of the most efficient and successful explorers of their age. They connected parts of the world that had previously not been in contact and shared knowledge among populations.

The Phoenicians expanded the understanding of the world and shaped the way empires thought about themselves in relation to others. In the centuries after Phoenicia came under Persian control, the Greek Empire fell and the Roman Empire was established. The Roman Empire grew into one of the greatest powers the world had ever seen. But the world they conquered, from west to east, was one first connected by the Phoenicians.