Alexander the Great expanded the Macedonian Kingdom to include most of the known world, including Phoenicia.

Chapter 6

The End of the Phoenician Trade Routes

Phoenician trade routes thrived for almost one thousand years before effectively ending in 539 BCE. That year, Cyrus the Great brought Phoenicia and the rest of the Near East under Persian rule. Then, starting in 334 BCE, Alexander the Great brought Phoenicia under Macedonian rule after two centuries of fighting between Persia and the Greek kingdom of Macedon. The end of Phoenician trade was gradual. Pressures from a series of invading forces made it difficult for the city-states to maintain the independence they once had. Taxes and tributes also put strain on the local economy. Meanwhile, the Phoenicians were unable to maintain sole control over the routes they established. Colonies like Carthage broke away and became powers in their own right.

As the Common Era neared, Rome replaced Phoenicia as the dominant trader of the Mediterranean. The Persians came to dominate most of East Asia. Phoenicia, although not destroyed completely, adapted and its people assimilated as the centuries went on. Phoenicians eventually lost the distinct identity that set them apart from other regional populations. It was a quiet end for a small civilization that shaped its own era.

In this chapter, we will look at the empires that absorbed Phoenicia and how they changed the way the city-states functioned. We will also learn about Cyrus the Great and Alexander the Great, two of the ancient world’s greatest leaders who each played a role in the downfall of Phoenicia. Finally, we will look at Phoenicia under Roman rule and how Phoenician identity changed over the centuries.

Assyrian Rule

Phoenicia rested on the edge of Mesopotamia, and so its city-states came under control of the empires ruling the area from time to time. Assyria was no exception. From around 883 BCE the Neo-Assyrian Empire held power over Phoenicia for stretches of time. Phoenicia was not a military power. As such, it did not engage in traditional warfare when it was possible to avoid it.

Neo-Assyrian rulers, beginning with Ashurnasirpal II in 883 BCE, did not seek to conquer Phoenicia but rather to get the leaders of each city-state to pay them tribute in goods and precious metals. Ashurnasirpal II himself wrote about receiving tributes from the Phoenicians: “The tribute of the sea coast—from the inhabitants of Tyre, Sidon, Byblos, Mahallata, Kaiza, Amurru and Arvad which is an Island in the sea, consisting of gold, silver, tin, copper, copper-containers, linen garments with multi-colored trimmings, large and small monkeys, ebony, boxwood, ivory from walrus tusk, a product of the sea—this their tribute I received and they embraced my feet.”

The Assyrians were often in conflict with Middle Eastern powers as they sought to conquer the region, including Phoenicia.

Between 883 BCE and 605 BCE, Phoenicia alternated between paying tribute to Assyrian kings and rebelling against their rule. The rulers themselves were far more concerned with threats from Egypt, Babylon, and other forces seeking to claim their territory. They left Phoenicia to function largely independently. These conflicts and a series of revolts from within their territory weakened the Assyrians to the point of defeat. Around 605 BCE the empire fell to the Babylonians.

Phoenicia briefly fell to the Babylonian Empire, but the Persians under Cyrus the Great soon defeated them. This Babylonian painting is part of the University of Chicago’s collection.

The Babylonian Empire was short lived and saw numerous rebellions. Babylon ruled Phoenicia from 605 BCE to 539 BCE. Rebellions were common under Nabopolassar. They were also common under his son, the famed king Nebuchadnezzar. Rebellions even occurred in the Phoenician city-states, including a thirteen-year uprising in Tyre that ended with a long siege. Babylon would later fall to the Persian leader Cyrus the Great.

Persian Rule

Cyrus the Great came to power in 559 BCE during the Achaemenid dynasty. He became one of ancient Persia’s greatest leaders. During his thirty-year reign, Cyrus conquered the Median, Lydian, and Babylonian empires, as well as large parts of the Far East. In the lands he controlled, Cyrus put in place a system of government that respected local values, religions, and norms. He left behind what the United Nations has called an ancient declaration of human rights. In a book called the Cyropaedia, Greek historian Xenophon wrote: “And those who were subject to him, he treated with esteem and regard, as if they were his own children, while his subjects themselves respected Cyrus as their ‘Father.’”

Cyrus conquered the Babylonian Empire in around 539 BCE, taking control of the Phoenician city-states and the rest of the Near East. He split Phoenicia into smaller kingdoms, centered on Sidon, Tyre, Arwad, and Byblos. For about two centuries the kingdoms thrived. They used their ship-making skills to provide fleets for Persian rulers. They also fought with the Persians against the Greeks in the Greco-Persian

Wars of the early 400s BCE.

Cyrus the Great was one of Persia’s most famed rulers, conquering large territories and bringing wealth and prestige to the empire.

But Persian rule of Phoenicia was brief, lasting only a handful of centuries. Cyrus was a just and loved ruler and Persia was one of the great civilizations of the ancient world. However, his successors were less successful at holding together the empire he built. In 465 BCE, King Xerxes I was killed by a Persian guard and official. Artaxerxes took the throne. Under him, Egypt revolted against Persian rule, marking the beginning of significant unrest in the empire. The kings who reigned after Artaxerxes faced a terribly high risk of assassination. Some served for only a handful of days before being killed by rivals. Meanwhile, rebellions began taking place in Phoenicia. In Sidon, a rebellion around 350 BCE resulted in the city’s destruction at the hands of King Artaxerxes III.

Weakened by war in Egypt and Greece and by rebellions, the Achaemenid Persian Empire fell in 300 BCE to Alexander the Great, a Macedonian ruler.

Alexander the Great

Alexander the Great ruled Macedon, a Greek kingdom, from 336 BCE to 323 BCE. In that time, he conquered much of the known world, including Egypt, Persia, and much of the Far East. Under Alexander, Greek culture spread throughout the ancient world. He remains one of the most celebrated military strategists in human history. Yet while Cyrus took Phoenicia with relative ease, Alexander showed a brutality that effectively destroyed the city of Tyre, one of the most important cities in Phoenician trade.

Alexander inherited the throne from his father, Philip. Soon after taking power, he began working to expand his territory and strengthen the grip his father had on Macedonian holdings. Historian Plutarch, who wrote one of the first memorials of Alexander, writes:

Thus it was that at the age of twenty years Alexander received the kingdom, which was exposed to great jealousies, dire hatreds, and dangers on every hand. For the neighbouring tribes of Barbarians would not tolerate their servitude, and longed for their hereditary kingdoms; and as for Greece, although Philip had conquered her in the field, he had not had time enough to make her tame under his yoke, but had merely disturbed and changed the condition of affairs there, and then left them in a great surge and commotion, owing to the strangeness of the situation. The Macedonian counsellors of Alexander had fears of the crisis, and thought he should give up the Greek states altogether and use no more compulsion there, and that he should call the revolting Barbarians back to their allegiance by mild measures and try to arrest the first symptoms of their revolutions; but he himself set out from opposite principles to win security and safety for his realm by boldness and a lofty spirit, assured that, were he seen to abate his dignity even but a little, all his enemies would set upon him.

In 333 BCE, Alexander launched a campaign to claim the Near East from Persia, then ruled by Darius III. Despite being outnumbered, he succeeded. Yet not all his new territory came quietly. The people of Tyre refused to surrender to him. After a long siege, Alexander defeated the rebellion there. Upon claiming Tyre, he killed all the men and sold the surviving women and children into slavery. This brought a temporary end to Phoenicia’s leading trade city.

Tyre

Tyre had an important place in Phoenician history, as both an economic power and a strongly independent city-state. It was where Tyrian dye, one of Phoenicia’s most lucrative and iconic exports, was produced. Tyre also founded Carthage, one of the most legendary of Phoenicia’s colonies. Tyre’s history is littered with sieges, rebellions, destructions, and massacres. Yet the city was always rebuilt. Following the reign of the Macedonians and the Seleucids, Tyre became semi-independent under the Romans. The Romans granted it the status of civitas foederata, or an ally rather than a subject state. It regained its footing as a commercial center over the centuries. The city appeared in the Bible and became the site of remarkable structures. After revolting against Byzantine rule in the first millennia CE, it became part of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Then it was brought under Ottoman rule in the 1200s CE.

In modern day, Tyre is one of the largest cities in Lebanon, a coastal country in the Middle East. Today, tourism is the largest industry due to the Roman Hippodrome located there, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Despite being destroyed numerous times throughout its history, Tyre remains an important part of the regional system of cities and communities. It is a testament to the continuity of history.

Tyre was one of the most successful Phoenician city-states, and its people often rebelled against conquering powers.

After the destruction of Tyre, the rest of the Phoenician city-states surrendered quietly. Macedon’s rise brought about the end of the Phoenician trade routes. As Macedonian and Roman traders began taking control of the Mediterranean, the Phoenicians struggled with a succession of new rulers, tributes, and rebellions. Under Alexander, Greek culture and to some extent Persian culture replaced Phoenicia’s distinct identity. However, colonies like Carthage remained independent and played a role in trade for years to come.

The End of Phoenicia

After being conquered by Alexander the Great, Phoenicia would never again be independent in the way it was during the height of its role in trade. The territory passed from the Macedonians to the Seleucid dynasty, then came under Roman rule. The Romans governed the area that was once Phoenicia as a province called Phoenice. Sidon, Byblos, and even Tyre once again began exporting goods like wine, wood, and glass. But this trade was not for their own gain. Their profits now fed the growing Roman Empire, which controlled the trade routes of the Mediterranean. The empire had conquered the world the Phoenicians connected centuries before. Eventually, the area became part of the Byzantine Empire, then the Ottoman Empire, and finally modern Lebanon.

Today our limited knowledge of Phoenicia makes it something of a mystery. The area where it once stood has been continuously inhabited since ancient history. Therefore, excavation of important Phoenician sites is nearly impossible. What we do know comes from second-hand reports from neighboring states, historical accounts of those who came later. We also have limited artifacts historians have discovered, including shipwrecks and some port cities. The picture this evidence paints is of a complex, cunning, and opportunistic people able to seize a moment in history that was unique in the ancient world. Phoenicians used the vacuum created by the Late Bronze Age Collapse to grow into a power in their own right.

In the years that followed, trade continued to play a vital role in the Mediterranean. The region was dominated first by the Roman Empire, then the Muslim Caliphate of the early Common Era, and finally the Ottoman Empire. The foundation of much of that trade was laid by the Phoenicians. Those who came after them built on the trade routes and traditions started by the small Levant civilization.

But despite the near erasure of the Phoenicians, their legacy outlasted them by millennia. In art styles and alphabets, symbolic colors and wine, Phoenicians shaped the world in which they lived to the extent that history would be unrecognizable without them. They explored the known world and connected empires, discovered new ways to navigate the seas and built ships in which to do so, and found their way into the works of great writers. Although few people know about the Phoenicians, we see their shadow and influence throughout history. We have their trade routes to thank.