Phoenicia

Definition

Phoenicia was an ancient civilization comprised of independent city-states which lay along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea stretching through what is now Syria, Lebannon and northern Israel. The Phoenicians were a great maritime people, known for their mighty ships adorned with horses’ heads in honor of their god of the sea, Yamm, the brother of Mot, the god of death.

The island city of Tyre and the city of Sidon were the most powerful states in Phoenicia (with Gebal/Byblos and Baalbek as the most important spiritual/religious centers) and the purple dye manufactured and used in Tyre for the Mesopotamian royalty gave Phoenicia the name by which we know it today (from the Greek 'phoinix’ for Tyranian Purple) and also accounts for the Phoenicians being known as 'purple people’ by the Greeks (as Herodotus tells us) as the dye would stain the skin of the workers. In its time Phoenicia was known as Canaan and is the land referenced in the Hebrew Scriptures to which Moses lead the Israelites from Egypt and which Joshua then conquered (Books of Exodus and Joshua). The city of Sidon (modern Sidonia) was the birthplace of the princess Jezebel who married the King of Israel, Ahab, as chronicled in I and II Kings.

Herodotus cites Phoenica as the birthplace of the alphabet, stating that it was brought to Greece by the Phoenician Kadmus (sometime before the 8th century BCE) and that, prior to that, the Greeks had no alphabet. The Phoenician alphabet is the basis for most languages written and spoken today and their city of Gebal (called by the Greeks 'Byblos’) gave the Bible its name (from the Greek 'Ta Biblia’, the books) as Gebal was the great exporter of papyrus ('bublos’ to the Greeks) in ancient times. It is also thought that many of the gods of ancient Greece were imported from Phoenicia as there are certain indisputable similarities in some stories concerning the Phoenician Baal and Yamm and the Greek Zeus and Poseidon.

In 334 BCE Alexander the Great conquered Baalbek (re-naming it Heliopolis) and marched on to brilliantly and brutally subdue the city of Tyre in 332 by building a land bridge from the mainland to the island which, today, still exists and is the reason why Tyre is no longer an island. After the fall of Tyre, Sidon was was overthrown and the other city-states followed suit, thus ending the Phoenician Civilization and ushering in the Hellenistic Age of Alexander. By 15 CE the disassembled parts of Phoenicia were colonies of the Roman Empire with Heliopolis remaining an important pilgrimage site which boasted the grandest religious building (the Temple of Jupiter Baal) in all of the Empire, the ruins of which remain well preserved to this day.

Written by Joshua J. Mark, published 02 September 2009.

Peer Review

Are you qualified to peer review ancient history information? Apply now and help provide quality ancient history information on the web!

Articles

• North Africa During the Classical Period

  Phoenician traders arrived on the North African coast around 900 B.C. and established Carthage (in present-day Tunisia) around 800 B.C. By the sixth century B.C., a Phoenician presence existed at Tipasa (east of Cherchell in Algeria). From their principal center of power at Carthage, the Carthaginians...

• Phoenician Names

  Phoenician names are generally composite words with a specific meaning. The naming of children had a significance in the Ancient Near East that is difficult to understand nowadays. By choosing a name for their child, the parents could not only celebrate their joy of having created life, but they believed...

• Alexander's Siege of Tyre, 332 BC

  After defeating Darius III at the battle of Issus in November 333 BC, Alexander marched his army (about 35,000-40,000 strong) into Phoenicia, where he received the capitulation of Byblus and Sidon. Tyrian envoys met with Alexander whilst he was on the march, declaring their intent to honour...

• Jezebel: Princess of Sidon, Queen of Israel

  Jezebel was the Phoenician Princess of Sidon (9th century BCE) whose story is told in the Hebrew Tanakh (the Christian Old Testament) in I and II Kings where she is portrayed unfavorably as a conniving harlot who corrupts Israel and flaunts the commandments of God. Recent scholarship, which has lead...

• The Phoenician Alphabet and Language

  Phoenician is a Canaanite language closely related to Hebrew. Very little is known about the Canaanite language, except what can be gathered from the El-Amarna letters written by Canaanite kings to Pharaohs Amenhopis III (1402-1364 BC) and Akhenaton (1364-1347 BC). It appears that Phoenician language, culture...

Illustrations

Phoenicia Books

• Phoenician Secrets: Exploring the Ancient Mediterranean Sanford Holst Santorini Books (30 April 2011) Price: $18.95

• Phoenicia, Arwad, Ugarit, Amrit, Carthage, Anunnaki: Cities, Archeology, Artifacts... Maximillien de Lafayette Times Square Press. New York. Berlin (19 June 2011) Currently unavailable

• Phoenicians Lebanon's Epic Heritage Sanford Holst Cambridge & Boston Press. (06 February 2012) Currently unavailable

• The Phoenicians Sabatino Moscati Rizzoli (05 February 2000) Currently unavailable

• The Phoenicians and the West: Politics, Colonies and Trade Maria Eugenia Aubet Cambridge University Press (15 October 2001) Price: $41.49