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Tags: History, Lang:en
Summary
Includes pictures Includes ancient accounts describing
the cities *Includes a bibliography for further reading Of all
the peoples of the ancient Near East, the Phoenicians are among
the most recognizable but also perhaps the least understood.
The Phoenicians never built an empire like the Egyptians and
Assyrians; in fact, the Phoenicians never created a unified
Phoenician state but instead existed as independent city-state
kingdoms scattered throughout the Mediterranean region.
However, despite the fact there was never a “Phoenician
Empire,” the Phoenicians proved to be more prolific in
their exploration and colonization than any other peoples in
world history until the Spanish during the Age of Discovery.
The Phoenicians were well-known across different civilizations
throughout the ancient world, and their influence can be felt
across much of the West today because they are credited with
inventing the forerunner to the Greek alphabet, from which the
Latin alphabet was directly derived. Nonetheless, the
Phoenicians left behind few written texts, so modern historians
have been forced to reconstruct their past through a variety of
ancient Egyptians, Assyrian, Babylonian, Greek, and Roman
sources. It’s not even clear what the Phoenicians called
themselves, because the name “Phoenician” is
derived from the Greek word “phoinix”, which
possibly relates to the dyes they produced and traded (Markoe
2000, 10). The mystery of the ancient Phoenicians is further
compounded by the fact that archaeologists have only been able
to excavate small sections of the three primary Phoenician
cities: Byblos, Sidon, and Tyre. A network of this size, with
hundreds of colonies and thousands of ships, had to be
well-coordinated, and it was thanks to important cities along
the Mediterranean coast. One of the most crucial cities in the
system was hidden beneath the Greek, Roman, and Crusader ruins
of Lebanon: the ancient city of Tyre. "Seated at entrance to
the sea," according to the prophet Ezekiel, Tyre was
constructed on a purportedly impenetrable island. As one of the
oldest cities in the world, Byblos is a fascinating place, with
its successive layers of debris representing millennia of human
occupation. From the earliest times this coastal strip played a
key role in connecting Arabia, Anatolia, Mesopotamia, Egypt,
and the Aegean. Because of this, the history of the city cannot
be told in isolation of its neighbors. From the Bronze Age
Byblos had a special connection with Egypt, which ceased only
with the invasion of the mysterious Sea Peoples at the end of
the 2nd millennium BCE. Between the Phoenicians, Asia Minor,
Israel, and Roman Palestine, it is not surprising that many
divergent religions have and continue to exist in the region.
The history of Sidon, as with other Phoenician cities,
constantly fluctuated between freedom and subjection. Its
privileged, geographical position on the coast was the source
of its commercial development and its openness to foreign
cultures, but in doing so the prosperous city became coveted by
numerous conquerors. It passed through the successive influence
of Egypt, the neighboring Phoenician city-state of Tyre, and
eventually flourished under Persian rule as the seat of a
satrap for the whole Euphrates region. The Persian king
frequently made use of the renowned Sidonian fleet during his
military campaigns, and the kings of Sidon were greatly
rewarded for their services. However, during the campaigns of
Alexander the Great, Sidon opened its doors to the young
Macedonian, who chose to depose the long lasting dynasty of
Sidonian kings. It later became the battleground between the
Arab caliphates and European Crusaders during the Middle Ages
in a conflict that in many ways continues to shape the region
to this day. **