Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadMcClintock Biblical Encyclopedia: Phoenicia
Subjects in this Topic:
( Öïéíßêç ), a country whose inhabitants necessarily held important and intimate relations, not only to the Hebrews, but to all antiquity. The latest and most complete authority on this subject is Rawlinson's History of Phelnicia (London, 1889).
I. The Land. —
1. Name. — "Phoenice" was not the name by which its native inhabitants called it, but was given to it by the Greeks, who called those merchants who came from that coast of the Mediterranean Sea which runs parallel with Mount Lebanon Öïéíéêåò . In Cicero (De Fin. 4:20) there occurs the doubtful reading Phoenicia (comp. the Vulgate in Num_33:51). However, this latter form of the name has come into general use (comp. Gesenii Monumenta Phenicia [Leips. 1837], page 338; Forbiger, Handbuch der alien Geographie [ibid. 1842-1844], page 659 sq.). This name has been variously derived. It is possibly from Phoenix the son of Agenor and the brother of Cadmus. It perhaps arose from the circumstance that the chief article of the commerce of these merchants was öïéíüò , purple. The word öïéíüò means blood-red, and is probably related to öüíïò , mzurder. This derivation of the name is alluded to by Strabo (1:42). Others imagine as naturally that the color does not give name to the people, but is named after them: as our damask, from Damascus; or our "calico," from Calicut. The term, as an epithet of color, may also apply, as Kenrick supposes, to the sunburnt complexion of the people. But after all, in the opinion of others, a Greek derivation may not be admissible, for the name may be original or Shemitic — though it is ridiculous in Scaliger, Fuller, and Glassius to identify it with ôðâ , "to live luxuriously," in allusion to the results of Phoenician wealth and merchandise. Strabo, however, maintains that the Phoenicians were called Öïßíéêåò , because they resided originally on the coasts of the Red Sea. Bochart, in his Canaan (1:1), derives the name from the Hebrew áðé òð÷ , sons of Anak. Reland, in his Palcestina ex Monumentis Veteribus IIlustrata, derives it from öïßíéî , palm-tree; and this is the etymology now generally acquiesced in. The palmtree is seen, as an emblem, on some coins of Aradus, Tyre, and Sidon; and there are now several palm-trees within the circuit of modern Tyre, and along the coast at various points; but the tree is not at the present day one of the characteristic features of the country. The native name of Phoenicia was Kendan (Canaan) or Kna, signifying Lowland, so named in contrast to the adjoining Aram, i.e., Highland, the Hebrew name of Syria. The name Kenaan is preserved on a coin of Laodicea of the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, whereon Laodicea is styled "a mother city in Canaan," ììàøëà àí áëðòï Kna or Chnd ( ×íᾶ ) is mentioned distinctly by Herodian the grammarian as the old name of Phoenicia. Hence, as Phoenicians or Canaanites were the most powerful of all tribes in Palestine at the time of its invasion by Joshua, the Israelites, in speaking of their own territory as it was before the conquest, called it "the land of Calnaan." SEE CANAAN.
In the O.T. the word Phoenicia does not occur, as might be expected from its being a Greek name. In the Apocrypha it is not defined, though spoken of as being, with Coele-Syria, under one military commander (2Ma_3:5; 2Ma_3:8; 2Ma_8:8; 2Ma_10:11; 3Ma_3:15). In the N.T. the word occurs only in three passages, Act_11:19; Act_15:3; Act_21:2; and not one of these affords a clew as to how far the writer deemed Phoenicia to extend. On the other hand, Josephus possibly agreed with Strabo; for he expressly says that Csesarea is situated in Phoenicia (Ant. 15:9, 6); and although he never makes a similar statement respecting Joppa, yet he speaks, in one passage, of the coast of Syria, Phoenicia, and Egypt, as if Syria and Phoenicia exhausted the line of coast on the Mediterranean Sea to the north of Egypt (War, 3:9, 2).
The Phoenicians in general are sometimes called Sidonians (comp. Gesenii Monumenta Phoenicia, 2:267 sq.; Thesaurus Linguce Hebraicae, under the word öéãåï ). Justinus (18:3) alludes to the etymology of this name: "A city being built which they called Sidon, from the abundance of fishes; for the Phoenicians call a fish sidon." This statement is not quite correct. But the root öåã , which in Hebrew means only to catch beasts and birds, can also be employed in Arabic when the catching of fishes is spoken of. This root occurs also in the Aramaic, in the signification of both hunting and fishing ( SEE ZIDON ).
2. Extent. — Phoenicia in general is the name applied to a country on the coast of Syria, bounded by the Mediterranean Sea on the west and Lebanon on the east; Syria and Judaea forming its northern and southern limits respectively, situated between about 34° to 366 N. lat., and 45° to 36° E. long. Yet the extent of its territory varied so considerably at different times that the geographical definitions of the ancient writers differ in a very remarkable manner. Thus, while in Gen_10:19 Canaan does not reach northwards beyond Sidon-a place which in early times gave the name to the whole people ( éåùáé öéãåï öéãðéí , Deuteronomy, Judges) — and Byblus and Berytus are considered as lying beyond it (Gen_10:15 sq.; Jos_13:5), it comprised in the Persian period (Herod. 3:91) Posidium, as high as 35° 52'. Later still (Pliny, Strabo, Ptolemy) the Eleutherus (340 60'), and subsequently (Mela, Stephanus) the island of Aradus (34° 70'), were considered its utmost northern, limits. To the south it was at times Gaza (Gen_10:19; Zep_2:5; Herod., Philo, Eustath.), at others Egypt (Num_24:5; Jos_15:4; Jos_15:47; Strabo, Procop., etc.); and, from the Macedonian period chiefly, Csesarea is mentioned as its extreme point. Eastward the country sometimes comprised parts of Syria and Palestine, beyond the mountain-ridges of the former and the hill-chains of the latter.
It will thus be seen that the length of coast to which the name Phoenicia was applied varied at different times, and may be regarded under different aspects before and after the loss of its independence.
(1.) What may be termed Phoenicia proper was a narrow undulating plain, extending from the pass of Ras el-Beyad or Abyad, the "Promontorium Album" of the ancients, about six miles south of Tyre, to the Nahr el-Auly, the ancient Bostrenus, two miles north of Sidon (Robinson, Bib. Res. 2:473). The plain is only twenty-eight miles in length, and, considering the great importance of Phoenicia in the world's history, this may well be added to other instances in Greece, Italy, and Palestine, which show how little the intellectual influence of a city or state has depended on the extent of its territory. Its average breadth is about a mile (Porter, Handbookfor Syria, 2:396); but near Sidon the mountains retreat to a distance of two miles, and near Tyre to a distance of five miles (Kenrick, Phoenicia, page 19). The whole of Phoenicia, thus understood, is called by Josephus (Ant. 5:3, 1) the great plain of the city of Sidon ( ôὸ ìÝãá ðåäßïí Óéäῶíïò ðüëåùò ). In it, near its northern extremity, was situated Sidon, in the north latitude of 330 34' 05"; and scarcely more than seventeen geographical miles to the south was Tyre, in the latitude of 33° 17' (admiral Smyth's Mediterranean, page 469): so that in a straight line those two renowned cities were less. than twenty English miles distant from each other. Zarephath, the Sarepta of the N.T., was situated between them, eight miles south of Sidon, to which it belonged (1Ki_17:9; Oba_1:20; Luk_4:26).
(2.) A still longer district, which afterwards became fairly entitled to the name of Phoenicia, extended up the coast, to a point marked by the island of Aradus, and by Antaradus towards the north; the southern boundary remaining the same as in Phoenicia proper. Phoenicia, thus defined, is estimated by Mr. Grote (Hist. of Greece, 3:354) to have been about one hundred and twenty miles in length; while its breadth, between Lebanon and the sea, never exceeded twenty miles, and was generally much less. This estimate is most reasonable, allowing for the bends of the coast; as the direct difference in latitude between Tyre and Antaradus (Tortosa) is equivalent to one hundred and six English miles; and six miles to the south of Tyre, as already mentioned, intervene before the beginning of the pass of Ras el-Abyad. The claim of this entire district to the name of Phoenicia rests on the probable fact that the whole of it, to the north of the great plain of Sidon, was occupied by Phoenician colonists; not to mention that there seems to have been some kind of politicalconnection, however loose, between all the inhabitants (Diodorus, 16:41). Scarcely sixteen geographical miles farther north than Sidon was Berytus; with a roadstead so well suited for the purposes of modern navigation that, under the modern name of Beirut, it has eclipsed both Sidon and Tyre as an emporium for Syria. Whether this Berytus was identical with the Berothah and Berothai of Eze_47:16, and of 2Sa_8:8, is a disputed point. Still farther north was Byblus, the Gebal of the Bible (Eze_27:9), inhabited by seamen and calkers. Its inhabitants are supposed to be alluded to in the word Giblim, translated "stonesquarers" in the A.V. of 1Ki_5:18 (32). It still retains in Arabic the kindred name of Jebeil. Then came Tripolis (now Tarabulus), said to have been founded by colonists from Tyre, Sidon, and Aradus, with three distinct towns, each a furlong apart from one another, each with its own walls, and each named from the city which supplied its colonists. General meetings of the Phoenicians seem to have been held at Tripolis (Diod. 16:41), as if a certain local jealousy had prevented the selection for this purpose of Tyre, Sidon, or Aradus. Lastly, towards the extreme point north was Aradus itself, the Arvad of Gen_10:18 and Eze_27:8, situated, like Tyre, on a small island near the mainland, and founded by exiles from Sidon.
During the period of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelites, the Phoenicians possessed the following towns, which we will enumerate successively in the direction from south to north: Dora ( ãåø . Jos_11:2; Jos_17:11 sq.); Ptolemais ( òëå , Jdg_1:33); Ecdippa ( àëæéá , Jos_19:29); Tyre ( öåø , Jos_19:29); Sarepta ( öøôú , 1Ki_17:9 sq.; Luk_4:26); Sidon ( öéãåï , Gen_10:15); Berytus ( áøåúä , Eze_47:16; 2Sa_8:8); Byblus ( âáì , Jos_13:5); Tripolis, Simyra ( äöîøé , Gen_10:18); Arka ( äòø÷é , Gen_10:17); Simna ( äñéðé , Gen_10:16); Aradus ( äàøåãé , Gen_10:18). Comp. the respective articles on these towns. Sidon is the only Phoenician town mentioned in Homer (see Iliad, 6:239; 23:743; Odyss. 15:415; 17:424).
3. Geographical Features. — The whole of Phoenicia proper is well watered by various streams from the adjoining hills; of these the two largest are the Khasimiyeh, a few miles north of Tyre — the ancient name of which, strange to say, is not certain, though it is conjectured to have been the Leontes and the Bostrenus, already mentioned, north of Sidon. The soil is fertile, although now generally ill-cultivated; but in the neighborhood of Sidon there are rich gardens and orchards. The havens of Tyre and Sidon afforded water of sufficient depth for all the requirements of ancient navigation, and the neighboring range of the Lebanon, in its extensive forests, firnished what then seemed a nearly inexhaustible supply of timber for ship-building. To the north of Bostrenus, between that river and Beirfit, lies the only desolate and barren part of Phoenicia. It is crossed by the ancient Tamyras or Damuras, the modern Nahr ed-Damur. From Beirut the plains are again fertile. The principal streams are the Lycus, now the Nahr el-Kelb, not far north from Beirat; the Adonis, now the Nahr Ibrahim, about five miles south of Gebal; and the Eleutherus, now the Nahr el-Kebir, in the bend between Tripolis and Antaradus.
The climate of Phoenicia — an item of immense moment in the history of a nation — varies very considerably. Near the coast, and in the lower plains, the heat in summer is at times tropical, while the more mountainous regions enjoy a moderate temperature, and in winter even heavy falls of snow are not uncommon. In the southern parts the early rains begin in October, and are, after an interval of dry weather, followed by the winter rains, which last till March, the time of the "latter" rains. From May till October the sky remains cloudless. The rare difference of temperature found in so small a compass is thus happily described by Volney: "If the heat of July is oppressive, a six hours' journey to the neighboring mountains transports you into the coolness of March; and if, on the contrary, the hoar-frost troubles you at Besharrai, a day's travel will bring you into the midst of blooming May;" or, as an Arabic poet has it, "Lebanon bears winter on its head, spring on its shoulders, autumn on its lap, and summer at its foot." The dense population assembled in the great mercantile towns greatly contributed to augment by artificial means the natural fertility of the soil. The population of the country is at present very much reduced, but there are still found aqueducts and artificial vineyards formed of mould carried up to the terraces of the native rock. Ammianus Marcellinus says (14:8), "Phoenicia is a charming and beautiful country, adorned with large and elegant cities." Even now this country is among the most fertile in Western Asia. It produces wheat, rye, and barley, and, besides the more ordinary fruits, also apricots, peaches, pomegranates, almonds, citrons, oranges, figs, dates, sugar-cane, and grapes, which furnish an excellent wine. In addition to these products, it yields cotton, silk, and tobacco. The country is also adorned by the variegated flowers of oleander and cactus. The higher regions are distinguished from the bare mountains of Palestine by being covered with oaks, pines, cypress-trees, acacias, and tamarisks; and above all by majestic cedars, of which there are still a few very old trees, whose stems measure from thirty to forty feet in circumference. The inhabitants of Sur still carry on a profitable traffic with the produce of Mount Lebanon, namely, in wood and charcoal. Phoenicia produces also flocks of sheep and goats; and innumerable swarms of bees supply excellent honey. In the forests there are bears, wolves, panthers, and jackals. The sea furnishes great quantities of fish, so that Sidon, the most ancient among the Phoenician towns, derived its name from fishing.
II. The People. —
1. Respecting the ethnography of the Phoenicians, we have only to observe that the opinions are as much divided on the subject as ever. According to Gen_10:15, Canaan had eleven "sons" ("Canaan begat Sidon his first-born, and Heth, and the Jebusite, and the Amorite, and the Girgasite, and the Hivite, and the Arkite, and the Sinite, and the Arvadite, and the Zemarite, and the Hamathite; and afterwards were the families of the Canaanites spread abroad"), six of whom had settled in the north of Palestine; and although all his descendants are sometimes included, both by classical writers and the Sept. (e.g. in Jos_5:1; Jos_5:12), in the name of Öïßíéêåò , yet in general the term chiefly applies to the inhabitants of the north. Scripture speaks of them as descendants of primeval giants (Autochthons) who had inhabited Canaan since the flood-that is, from times immemorial. Considering the careful attention paid by the Biblical writers to the early history of Palestine, and the close contact between the Phoenicians and Israelites, it would appear as if all traditions of a time anterior to their sojourn in that land had been long lost. Gen_10:6, on the other hand, calls Canaan a descendant of Ham — a statement which, unless explained to refer to their darker skins, would seem to war against their being indigenous inhabitants of Palestine, or a Shemitic population, an assumption much favored by their language. Herodotus, however, makes them, both on their own statements and by accounts preserved in Persian historians, immigrants from "the Erythreean Sea;" and Justin backs the notion of immigration by recording that the Tyrian nation was founded by the Phoenicians, and that these, being forced by an earthquake to leave their native land, first settled on the Assyrian lake (Dead Sea or lake of Gennesareth), and subsequently on a shore near the sea, where they founded a city called Sidon. The locality of the "Erythreean Sea," however, is a moot point still. It is taken by different investigators to stand either for the Arabian or Persian Gulf; the latter view being apparently favored by the occurrence of Phoenician names borne by some of its islands (Strabo) — though these may have been given them by late Phoenician colonists. Some have seen in them the Hyksos driven to Syria. Without entering any further into these most difficult, and, in the absence of all trustworthy information, more than vague speculations, so much appears certain, that many immigrations of Shemitic branches into Phoenicia, at different periods and from different parts, must have taken place, and that these gradually settled into the highly civilized nationality which we find constituted as early as the time of Abraham (Gen_12:6, àå = then, already; comp. Aben-Ezra, ad loc., and Spinoza, Tract. Theol.Pol. chapter 8). It would be extremely vain to venture an opinion on the individuality of the different tribes that, wave-like, rushed into the country from various sides, at probably widely distant dates. The only apparently valuable tradition on the subject seems contained in the above- quoted passage of Gen_10:15-18. But there is one point which can be proved to be in the highest degree probable, and which has peculiar interest as bearing on the Jews, viz. that the Phoenicians were of the same race as the Canaanites. This remarkable fact, which, taken in connection with the language of the Phoenicians, leads to some interesting results, is rendered probable by the following circumstances:
1st. The native name of Phoenicia, as already pointed out, was Canaan, a name signifying "lowland." This was well given to the narrow slip of plain between the Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea, in contrast to the elevated mountain range adjoining; but it would have been inappropriate to that part of Palestine conquered by the Israelites, which was undoubtedly a hill-country (see Movers, Das Phoenizische Alterthum, 1:5); so that, when it is known that the Israelites at the time of their invasion found in Palestine a powerful tribe called the Canaanites, and from them called Palestine, the land of Canaan, it is obviously suggested that the Canaanites came originally from the neighboring plain, called Canaan along the sea-coast.
2d. This is further confirmed through the name in Africa whereby the Carthaginian Phoenicians called themselves, as attested by Augustine, who states that the peasants in his part of Africa, if asked of what race they were, would answer, in Punic or Phoenician, "Canaanites" (Opera Omnia, 4:1235; Exposit. Epist. ad Rom. § 13).
3d. The conclusion thus suggested is strongly supported by the tradition that the names of persons and places in the land of Canaan — not only when the Israelites invaded it, but likewise previously, when "there were yet but a few of them," and Abraham is said to have visited it-were Phoenician or Hebrew: such, for example, as Abimelek, "father of the king" (Gen_20:2); Melchizedek, "king of righteousness" (Gen_14:18); Kirjath-sepher, "city of the book" (Jos_15:15). As above observed, in Greek writers also occurs the name ÷íÜ for Phcenicia (comp. Gesenii Thesaurus Linguae Hebraicae [Leips. 1839], 2:696, and Gesenii Monumenta Phoenicia, page 570 sq.). The dialect of the Israelites perhaps resembled more the Aramaean, and that of the Phoenicians more the Arabic; but this difference was nearly effaced when both nations resided in the same country, and had frequent intercourse with each other. Concerning the original country of the Phoenicians and their immigration into Canaan, comp. especially Bertheau, Zur Geschichte der Israeliten (Gottingen, 1840), pages 152-186, and Lengerke, Kanaan, Volks- und Religionsgeschichte Israels (Kinigsberg, 1844), 1:182 sq.
2. Government. — Two principal divisions existed anciently among these Canaanites: these were those of the interior of Palestine, and the tribes inhabiting the sea-coast, Phoenicia proper. By degrees three special tribes, more powerful than the rest, formed, as it were, the nucleus around which the multitude of minor ones gathered and became one nationality, viz. the inhabitants of Sidon, of Tyre, and of Aradus. Three principal elements are to be distinguished, according to classical evidence (Cato, comp. Serv. ad En. 4:682), in the constitution of Phoenician states: 1. The aristocracy, consisting of certain families of noble lineage, which were divided into tribes ( ùáè ), families ( îùôçä , Phoen. çáéï ), and gentes ( áéú àáåú ), the last generally of the number of 300 in each state or colony. Out of the "tribes" were elected thirty principes (Phoen. øá ), who formed a supreme senate; besides which there existed another larger representative assembly of 300 members, chosen from the gentes. 2. The lower estates of the people, or "plebs" itself, who do not seem to have had their recognised special representatives, but by constant opposition, which sometimes broke out in open violence, held the nobles in check. 3. The kingdom, at first hereditary, afterwards became elective. Nor must the priesthood be forgotten; one of the most powerful elements in the Phoenician commonwealth, and which in some provinces even assumed, in the person of the highpriest, the supreme rule. There was a kind of federal union between the different states, which, according to their importance, sent either their kings or their judges, at the head of a large number of their senators, to the general councils of the nation, held at stated periods either at Sidon or Tyre. The colonies were governed much as the home-country, except that local affairs and the executive were intrusted to two (annual, as it would seem) judges ( ùåôèéí , suffetes) elected by the senate — an institution which for some time also replaced the monarchical form in Tyre. When Tripolis was founded by Tyre, Sidon, and Aradus, as a place of joint meeting for their hegemony, every one of these cities sent 100 senators to watch her special interests at the common meeting; and the senate of Sidon seems, in the 4th century B.C., at least, to have consisted of 500 to 600 elders, some of whom were probably selected more for their wealth than for their noble lineage. The king sometimes combined in his person the office of highpriest. The turbulent seething mass of the people, consisting of the poorer families of Phoenician descent, the immigrants of neighboring tribes, the strangers, and the whole incongruous mass of workmen, tradespeople, sailors, that must have abounded in a commercial and maritime nation like the Phoenicians, and out of whose midst must have arisen at times influential men enough — was governed, as far as we can learn, as "constitutionally" as possible. The unruly spirits were got rid of in Roman fashion somehow in the colonies, or were made silent by important places being intrusted to their care, under strict supervision from home. Only once or twice do we hear of violent popular outbreaks, in consequence of one of which it was mockingly said that Phoenicia had lost all her aristocracy, and what existed of Phoenicians was of the lowest birth, the offspring of slaves. As the wealth of all the world accumulated more and more in the Phoenician ports, luxury) and too great a desire to rest and enjoy their wealth in peace, induced the dauntless old pirates to intrust the guard of their cities to the mariners and mercenary soldiers, to Libyans and Lydians — "they of Persia and of Lud and of Phut," as Ezekiel has it; although the wild resistance which this small territory offered in her single towns to the enormous armies of Assyria, Babylonia and Greece shows that the old spirit had not died out. The smaller states were sometimes so much oppressed by Tyre that they preferred rather to submit to external enemies (comp. Heeren, Ideen, etc., page 15 sq.; Beck, Anleitung zur genaueren Kenntniss der Welt- und Volkergeschichte, page 252 sq., and 581 sq.).
3. History. — One of the most powerful and important nations of antiquity, Phoenicia has yet left but poor information regarding her history. According to Josephus, every city in Phoenicia had its collection of registers and public documents (comp. Targum to Kirjath-Jearim, Jdg_1:11; Jdg_1:15). Out of these, Menander of Ephesus, and Dias, a Phoenician, compiled two histories of Tyre, a few fragments of which have survived (comp. Josephus, Contra Rev_1:17-18; Ant. 8:5, 3; 13:1 sq.; 9:14, 2; Theophil. Ad Autol. 3:22; Syncellus, Chron. page 182). Sanchoniatho is said to have written a history of Phoenicia and Egypt, which was recast by Philo of Byblus, under the reign of Hadrian, and from his work Porphyrius (4th century A.D.) took some cosmogonical quotations, which found their way into Eusebius (Praep. Evang. 1:10). Later Phoenician historians' works (Theodotus, Hesycrates, Moschos, mentioned as authors on Phoenicia by Tatianus, Contra Grcecos, § 37) are likewise lost. Gesenlius mentions, in his Monumenta Phoenicia (page 363 sq.), some later I;hoenician authors, who do not touch upon historical subjects. Thus nothing remains but a few casual notices in the Bible, some of the Church fathers, and classical writers (Josephus, Syncellus, Herodotus, Diodorus, Justin), which happen to throw some light upon the history of that long- lost commonwealth. A great part of this history, however, being identical with that of the cities mentioned, in which by turns the hegemony was vested, fuller information will be found under their special headings. The names of the kings from Hiram to Pygmalion are preserved by Josephus (Apion, 1:18) in a fragment from the history of Tyre by Menander of Ephesus. We give them, with the computations of the reigns by Movers (ut sup. II, 1:140, 143, 149), Duncker (Gesch. des A lterthums [3d ed. Berl. 1863-7], 1:526 sq.), and Hitzig (Urgesch. und Mythol. der Philistber, page 191). See also Herzog, Encyklop. 11:620 sq.
Name.
Astartus....
Broadly speaking, we may begin to date Phoenician history from the time when Sidon first assumed the rule, or about B.C. 1500. Up to that time it was chiefly the development of the immense internal resources, and the commencement of that gigantic trade that was destined soon to overspread the whole of the then known world, which seem to have occupied the attention of the early and peaceful settlers. The symbolical representative of their political history during that period is El, or Belitan, builder of cities, supreme and happy ruler of men. The conquest of Canaan by the Israelites marks a new epoch, of which lists of kings were still extant in late Greek times. We now hear first of Sidonian colonies, while the manufactures and commerce of the country seem to have reached a high renown throughout the neighboring lands. The Israelites drove out Sidonian settlers from Laish, near the sources of the Jordan. Somewhat later (beginning of 13th century), Sidonian colonization spread farther west, founding the (island) city of Tyre, and Citium and Hippo on the coast of Africa. About 1209, however, Sidon was defeated by the king of Askalon, and Tyre, assuming the ascendency, ushered in a third period, during which Phoenicia reached the summit of her greatness. At this time, chiefly under the brilliant reign of Hiram, we hear also of a close alliance with the Israelites, which eventually led to common commercial enterprises at sea. After Hiram's death, however, political dissensions began to undermine the unparalleled peace and power of the country. His four sons ruled, with certain interruptions, for short periods, and the crown was then assumed by Ethbaal, the father of Jezebel. His grandson, Mattan, left the throne to his two children, Pygmialion and Dido (Elissa). The latter, having been excluded from power by her brother, left the country, together with some of the aristocratic families, and founded Carthage (New-Town), about B.C. 813. Of the century that followed, little further is known save occasional allusions in Joel and Amos, which tell of the piratical commerce of Tyrians and Sidonians. Assyrian, Chaldsean, Egyptian invasions followed each other in turns during the last phase of Phoenician history, dating from the 8th century, and soon reduced the flourishing country to insignificance.
Deeds of prowess, such as the thirteen years' siege sustained by Tyre against overwhelming forces, could not save the doomed country. Her fleet destroyed, her colonies wrested from her or in a state of open rebellion, torn by inner factions, Phoenicia was ultimately (together with what had been once Nebuchadnezzar's empire) embodied with Persia B.C. 538. Once more, however, exasperated by the enormous taxes imposed upon them, chiefly during the Greek war, together with other galling measures issued by the successive satraps, the Phoenicians, under the leadership of Sidon, took part in the revolution of Egypt against Artaxerxes Mnlemon and Ochus, about the mnide die of the 4th century B.C., which ended very unhappily for them. Sidon, the only city that refused to submit at once at the approach of the Persian army, was conquered, the citizens themselves setting fire to it, and more than 40,000 people perished in the flames. Although rebuilt and repeopled shortly afterwards, it yet never again reached its ancient grandeur, and to Tvre belonged the hegemony, until she, too, had to submit, after a seven years' siege, to Alexander, who through the battle on the Issus (B.C. 333) had made all Phoenicia his as part and parcel of the gigantic Persian empire. Under Antiochus the Great, all except Sidon became subject to Seleucidian sway. Pompey, incorporating Phoenicia with Syria (B.C. 65), made it a Roman province. During the civil wars of Rome, when Cassius divided Syria into small provinces, and sold them separately, Tyre again became for a short period a principality, with a king of its own. Cleopatra in her turn received Phoenicia as a present from Antony. What shadow of independence was still left to the two ancient cities was taken from them by Augustus (A.D. 20). Tyre, however, retained much of her previous importance as an emporium and a manufacturing place through the various vicissitudes of Syrian history during the sixteen centuries that followed, until the Ottoman Turks conquered the country, and the opening up of the New World on the one hand, and of a new route to Asia on the other, destroyed the last remnant of the primitive grandeur of one of the most mighty empires of the ancient world, and one which has contributed one of the largest shares to the civilization of all mankind.
4. Occupations. — Commerce and colonization were the elements by which this grandeur was chiefly accomplished. Regarding the former, we have already hinted at the overflowing wealth and almost unparalleled variety of home products which this small country furnished forth, and which, far too abundant for their own consumption, easily suggested the idea of exportation and traffic of exchange. Their happy maritime position further enabled them to do that which Egypt and Assyria, with all their perfection of industry and art, were debarred from doing; partly, it is true, through their isolated habits and narrow laws, but chiefly by the natural limits of their countries. To Phoenicia alone it was given to supply the link that was to connect the East with the West, or at least with Europe and Western Africa. Communicating by means of Arabia and the Persian Gulf with India and the coast of Africa towards the equator; and on the north, along the Euxine, with the borders of Scythia, beyond the Strait of Gibraltar, with Britannia, if not with the Baltic, their commerce divides itself into different great branches according to those natural highways. From the countries on the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, the coasts of Arabia, Africa, and India, they exported spice, precious stones, myrrh, frankincense, gold, ivory, ebony, steel, and iron, and from Egypt embroidered linen and corn. In exchange they brought not only their own raw produce and manufactures, but gums and resins for embalming, also wine and spices. From Mesopotamia and Syria came the emeralds and corals of the Red Sea; from Babylon the manifold embroideries; wine and fine wool from Aleppo and the Mesopotamian plains; from Judaea the finest wheat, grape-honey, oil, and balm. Another remote region, Armenia, furnished troops of riding and chariot horses and mules; and this same country, or, rather, the south-eastern coast of the Euxine, further furnished the Phoenician emporiums with slaves of a superior market-value-for pirating and slave-dealing went hand in hand with their maritime calling- with copper, lead, brass (or ichalcum), and tunnies, which they also fetched, together with conger-eels, from the Atlantic coast. Their extensive early commerce with Greece is frequently alluded to in Homer, and is further shown by the remarkable fact of the abundance of Shemitic or Phoenician words in Greek for such things as precious stones, fine garments, vessels, spices, and Eastern plants in general, musical instruments, weights and measures, etc. (comp. ìýῤῥá , îø ; êßííáìïí , ÷ðîåï ; êÜííá , ÷ðä ; ëßâáíïò , ìáðä ; ÷áëâÜíç , galbanum, : çìáðä ; íÜñäïò , ðøã ; óÜìöåéñïò ùôéø ; ἴáóðéò , éùôä ; âýóóïò , áååֹ ; êÜñðáóïò , ëøôñ ; íÜâëá , ðáì ; ôýìðáíïí , ú ; óáìâýêç , ñáëà ; êýðñïò , ëôø ; ὕóóùðïò , àæåá ; êéâώñõïí , ëôåø ; óÜêêïò , ù÷ ; ÷Üñôò ,; äÝëôïò , çãè ; ἀῤῥáâώí , òøáåï ; ìíᾶ , îðä ; êÜâïò , ÷á ; äñá÷ìή , ãøëîåï ; êüñïò , ëø , etc.). Beyond the Strait, along the north and west coast of Africa, they received skins of deer, lions, panthers, domestic cattle, elephants' skins and teeth, Egyptian alabaster, castrated swine, Attic pottery and cups, probably also gold. Yet the most fabulously rich mines of metalssuch as silver, iron, lead, tin — they found in Tartessus. So extensive and proverbial was this commerce that we enumerate its elements in detail.
The position of Phoenicia, as we have seen, was most favorable for the exchange of the produce of the East and West. Persians, Lydians, and Lycians frequently served as mercenaries in the Phoenician armies (Eze_27:10-11). Phoenicia exported wine to Egypt (Herod. 3:5, 6). Purple garments were best manufactured in Tyre (Amati, De Restitutione Purpurarunm, 3d ed. Casenee, 1784). Glass was made in Sidon and Sarepta (comp. Heeren, page 86 sq.; Beck, page 593 sq.). In Phoenicia was exchanged the produce of all known countries. After David had vanquished the Edomites and conquered the coasts of the Red Sea, king Hiram of Tyre entered into a confederacy with Solomon, by which he insured for his people the right of navigation to India. The combined fleet of the Israelites and Phoenicians sailed from the seaports of Ezion-geber and Elath. These ports were situated on the eastern branch of the Red Sea, the Sinus Elaniticus, or Gulf of Akabah. Israelitish-Phoenician mercantile expeditions proceeded to Ophir, perhaps Abhira, situated at the mouth of the Indus (comp. Lassen, Indische Alterthumskunde [Bonn, 1844], 1:537 sq.). It seems, however, that the Indian coasts in general were also called Ophir. Three years were required in order to accomplish a mercantile expedition to Ophir and to return with cargoes of gold, algum-wood, ivory, silver, monkeys, peacocks, and other Indian produce.
Some names of these products are Indian transferred into Hebrew, as àìîâéí , almuggim, Sanscr. valgu, or, according to the Decanic pronunciation, valgum; ùïàּáּéí , shen-habbim (ivory), Sanscr. ÷å ; ' koph (ape), Sanscr. kapi; úåëééí , tukkiyim (peacock), Sanscr. cikhi, according to the Decanic pronunciation (comp. 1Ki_9:27; 1Ki_10:11; 1Ki_10:22). SEE OPHIR. It seems, however, that these mercantile expeditions to India were soon given up, probably on account of the great difficulty of navigating the Red Sea. King Jehoshaphat endeavored to recommence these expeditions, but his fleet was wrecked at Ezion-geber (1Ki_22:48). The names of mercantile establishments on the coasts of Arabia along the Persian Gulf have partly been preserved to the present day. In these places the Phoenicians exchanged the produce of the West for that of India, Arabia, and Ethiopia. Arabia especially furnished incense, gold, and precious stones. The Midianites (Gen_37:28) and the Edomites (Eze_27:16) effected the transit by their caravans. The fortified Idumaean town Petra probably contained the storehouses in which the produce of southern countries was collected. From Egypt the Phoenicians exported especially byssus (Eze_27:7) for wine. According to an ancient tradition, the tyrant of Thebes, Busiris, having soiled his hands with the blood of all foreigners, was killed by the Tyrian Hercules. This indicates that Phoenician colonists established themselves and their civilization successfully in Upper Egypt, where all strangers had usually been persecuted. At a later period Memphis was the place where, most of the Phoenicians in Egypt were established. Phoenician inscriptions found in Egypt prove that even under the Ptolemies the intimate connection between Phoenicia and Egypt still existed (comp. Gesenii Monumenta Phoenicia, 13:224 sq.). From Palestine the Phoenicians imported, besides wheat, especially from Judaea, ivory, oil, and balm; also wool, principally from the neighboring nomadic Arabs. Damascus furnished wine (Eze_27:5-6; Eze_27:17-18; Eze_27:21), and the mountains of Syria wood. The tribes about the shores of the Caspian Sea furnished slaves and iron; for instance, the Tibaraeans ( úåáì , Tubal) and Moschi ( îùׁ , ִ Meshech). Horsemen, horses, and mules came from the Armenians ( úâøîä , Togarmah) (see Heeren, pages 86-130). The treasures of the East were exported from Phoenicia by ships which sailed first to Cyprus. the mountains of which are visible from the Phoenician coast. Citium was a Phoenician colony in Cyprus, the name of which was transferred to the whole of Cyprus, and even to some neighboring islands and coasts called ëúéí (Gen_10:4; Isa_23:1; Isa_23:12).
Hence also çúéí , the name of a Canaanitish or Phoenician tribe (Gesenii Monumenta Phoenicia, page 153). Cyprus was subject to Tyre up to the time of Alexander the Great. There are still found Phoenician inscriptions which prove the connection of Cyprus with Tyre. At Rhodes ( øãðéí ) also are found vestiges of Phoenician influence. From Rhodes the mountains of Crete are visible. This was of great importance for the direction of navigators, before the discovery of the compass. In Crete, and also in the Cycladic and Sporadic Isles, are the vestiges of Phoenician settlements. On the Isle of Thasos, on the southern coast of Thrace, the Phoenicians had gold-mines; and even on the southern shores of the Black Sea they had factories. However, when the Greeks became more powerful, the Phoenicians sailed more in other directions. They occupied also Sicily and the neighboring islands, but were, after the Greek colonization, confined to a few towns, Motya, Soloes, Panormus (Thucydides, 6:2). The Phoenician mercantile establishments in Sardinia and the Balearic Isles could scarcely be called colonies. Carthage was a Phoenician colony, which probably soon became important by commerce with the interior of Africa, and remained connected with Tvre by means of a common sanctuary. After Phoenicia had been vanquished by the Assyrians. Babylonians, and Persians, the settlements in Sicily, Sardinia, and Spain came into the power of Carthage. The Phoenicians had for a long period exported from Spain gold, silver, tin, iron, lead (Eze_38:13), fruit, wine, oil, wax, fish, and wool. Their chief settlement was Tarshish, úøùׁéùׁ , subjection, from the root øùׁùׁ , he vanquished, subjected. The Aramaeans pronounced úøúéùׁ ; hence the Greek Tartessos. This was probably the name of a town situated to the west of the Pillars of Hercules (Calpe and Abyla, now Gibraltar and Ceuta), and even more west than Gades, at the mouth of the Baetis (Herod. 4:62; Scymnus Chius, 5:161 sq.). This river was also called Tartessus (Arist. Meteor. 1:13; Pausan. 6:19, 3; Strabo, 3, page 148). At a later period the town of Tartessus obtained likewise the Phoenician name Carteja, from ÷øú , town (Strabo, 3, page 151).
There are other names of towns in Spain which have a Phoenician derivation: Gades, âãø , septum, fence (comp. Gesenii Monumenta Phoenicia, page 304 sq., 349); Malaga ( îìç ), on account of much salt fish thence exported; or, according to Gesenius (id. page 312 sq., and 353), from îìàëäàּîìëä , officinaf abrorum, iron-works, or manufactory of other metals, on account of the mines to be found there; Belon, áòìä , civitas, city (id. page 311 sq., and 348). The voyage to Tarshish was the most important of those undertaken by the Phoenicians. Hence it was that their largest vessels were all called ships of Tarshish, although they sailed in other directions (1Ki_10:22). It appears also that the Phoenicians exported tin from the British Isles, and amber from the coasts of Prussia. Their voyages on the western coasts of Africa seem to have been merely voyages of discovery, without permanent results. The Spanish colonies were probably the principal sources of Phoenician wealth, and were founded at a very remote period. The migration of the Phoenician, Cadmus, into Bceotia likewise belongs to the earlier period of Phoenician colonization. Homer seems to know little of the Sidonian commerce; which fact may be explained by supposing that the Phoenicians avoided all collision and competition with the increasing power of the Greeks, and preferred to direct their voyages into countries where such compe tition seemed to be improbable. Herodotus describes the Phoenicians as beginning soon after their settlement to occupy themselves in distant voyages (1:1). From the construction of rude rafts, they must speedily have reached to a style of substantial ship-building. Their commercial vessels are represented either as long in shape, and fitted both for sailing and being rowed with fifty oars — “ships of Tarshish;" or as rounder in form, and more capacious in stowage, but slower in speed- tubs or coasting-vessels — bearers of cargo on short voyages. Xenophon (Economics, 8) passes a high eulogy on a Phoenician ship — "the greatest quantity of tackling was disposed separately in the smallest stowage."
Their merchantmen also carried arms for defence, and had figures on their prows, which the Greeks named ðÜôáéêïé . They steered by the Cynosure, or the last star in Ursa Minor; and they could cast reckonings, from the combined application of astronomy and arithmetic (Strabo, 16:2, 24). This nautical application of astronomy is ascribed by Callimachus to Thales, a Phcenician by descent (Frag. ed. Blomfield, page 213; Diog. Laert. Thales). Lebanon supplied them with abundance of timber, and Cyprus gave them all necessary equipments, from the keel to the topsails — "a fundamento ipso carinee ad supremos ipsos carbasos" (Amm. Marcell. 14:8-14). These daring Phoenician navigators in the reign of Pharaoh — Necho circumnavigated Africa — departing from the Red Sea and returning by the Strait of Gibraltar. They reported that in sailing round Libya they had the sun on their right hand — a story of which Herodotus says, "I, for my part, do not believe them," and yet it is the positive proof that they had gone round the Cape (Herod. 4:42). Diodorus speaks also of Phoenician mariners — being driven westwards beyond the Pillars of Hercules into the ocean, and reaching at length a very fertile and beautiful island — "a dwelling of gods rather than of men" — one probably of the Azores or Canary Islands. The Phoenicians furnished to Xerxes 300 ships, but they were defeated at Salamis. It is said that of all the nations employed in digging the famous canal across the isthmus of Athos, they alone had sufficient engineering skill to begin its banks on their section at a slope, and thus prevent caving in (7:23). The remote periods of Phoenician commerce and colonization are wrapped in myths. Phoenician ships may have first carried the produce of Assyria and Egypt but their own wares and manufactures were soon largely exported by them (Ezekiel 28). The commerce of Tyre reached through the world (Strabo, 3:5, 11).
There was also a great trade in the tunny fisheries, and the Tyrians sold fish in Jerusalem (Neh_13:16). Phoenicia excelled in the manufacture of the purple dye extracted from the shell-fish murex, so abundant on parts of its coasts. This color in its richest hue was at length appropriated to imperial use, and the silk so dyed was of extraordinary value. The glass of Sidon was no less famous than the Tyrian dye — the fine white sand used for the process being very abundant near Mount Carmel. Glass has been found in Nineveh, and glass-blowing is figured at Beni-Hassan in Egypt. The art might have come from Egypt, but the discovery in Phoenicia is represented as accidental. The pillar of emerald shining brightly in the night, which Herodotus speaks of as being in the temple of Hercules, was probably a hollow cylinder of glass with a lamp within it (Kenrick, Phenicia, page 249). Phoenicia produced also drinking-cups of silver and gold. Homer describes Sidon as abounding in works of brass. Its building- stone was not of very good quality, but cedar-wood was largely employed. When stone was used the joints were bevelled — a practice which also characterizes Hebrew architecture, and gives it a panelled appearance. The mining operations of the Phoenicians were also celebrated. Herodotus says they turned a mountain over ἐí ôῇ æçôήóåé — in the search for gold. Mines were wrought in the various colonies — in the Grecian islands and in Spain — by processes much the same as those employed in more modern times. The marine knowledge and experience of Phoenicia led to the plantation of numerous colonies in Cyprus, Rhodes, Cilicia, and the islands of the AEgean-the Cyclades and Sporades (Thucyd. 1:8) — in Sicily, in Sardinia, the Balearic Islands, and in Spain. Strabo says that the Phoenicians possessed the best parts of Iberia before the days of Homer (3:22, 14). One principal colony was in Northern Africa, and Strabo asserts that they occupied the middle part of Africa soon after the Trojan war.
The story of Dido and the foundation of Carthage is well known, the event being placed by some in B.C. 813. Byrsa, the name of the hill on which the city was built, denotes a fortress, being áָּöְøָä . (Bozrah), the name also of the Idumaean capital; though its Greek form, Âýñóá , gave rise to the story about the purchase of as much land as a hide would measure. Carthage means "new town" ( ÷øú çãùä ), and Punici is only another spelling of Phuonici. Intercourse with many strange and untutored races led the Phoenicians to indulge in fictions, and love of gain taught them mercantile deceits and stratagems. "Phoenician figment" — øåῦóìá öïéíéêéêüí — or a traveller's tale, was proverbial in former times, likefides Punica at a later period (Strabo, 12, page 55). The Etymologium Magnum bluntly öïéíéêéêüí by ôὸ øåῦäïò , the lie. In the Odyssey they are described as "crafty" íáõóßêëõôïé (Odyss. 13:415), or as "crafty and wicked." As a trading nation they were ready sometimes to take advantage of the ignorant and savage tribes with which they bartered, and they cared nothing for law or right on the high seas, where no power could control or punish; so that Ulysses uses the phrase Öïßíéî ἀíὴñ ἀñáôήëéá åἰäὼò ôñώêôçò , "a Phoenician man knowing deceitful things — crafty" (id. 14:285). The term "Canaan," "Canaanite," or "man of Canaan," the native name of the Phoenician, is sometimes rendered "merchant" in the English version (Isa_23:8; Zep_1:11; Job_41:6; Pro_31:24; Zec_14:21; Hos_12:7; Eze_17:4). "Phoenician" and "merchant" were thus interchangeable terms; so that Öïῖíéî ãßíïìáé means, "I become a trader." But the phrase seems to have sunk in moral meaning, and trader was but another name for a hucksterer, or a pedler going from house to house, as in Pro_31:24. Nay, the prophet Hosea (12:7) says, "He is a Canaanite," or "Phenician," or "as for Canaan, the balances of deceit are in his hand: he loveth to oppress. And Ephraim said, Yet am I become rich, I have found me out substance." A common proverb expressive of fraud matching fraud was Óýñïé ðñὸò Öïßíéêáò . No coined money of Phoenicia is extant prior to its subjugation by the Greeks. The standard seems to have been the same as the Jewish; the shekel being equal to the Attic tetradrachm; and the zuz, which occurs on the tablet of Marseilles, being of the value of a denarius. On the same tablet keseph (silver) occurs, with the probable ellipse of "shekel," as in Hebrew. Foreign silver money ( æø ) is also there referred to. Among the antiquities dug up in Nineveh are several bronze weights in the form of lions; having both cuneiform legends with the name of Sennacherib, and also Phoenician or cursive Shemitic inscriptions (Layard, Nin. and Bab. page 601). The cor was a Phoenician measure, the same as the Hebrew chomer, and holding ten Attic metretee.each metretes being equal to about ten and a half gallons. The arithmetical notation was carried out by making simple strokes for the units; 10 was a horizontal stroke or a semicircle, and 100 was a special sign, the unit strokes added to it denoting additional hundreds (Gesenii Monumenta Phoenicia, page 85).
It appears almost incredible how, with the comparatively small knowledge of natural science which we must attribute to them, the Phoenicians could thus on theirfrail rafts traverse the wide seas almost from one end of the globe to the other, with apparently no more difficulty than their inland caravans, their chapmen and dealers, found in traversing the neighboring countries. Yet it must not, on the other hand, be forgotten that theirs appears to have been an uncommon knowledge of astronomy and physical geography — witness their almost scientifically planned voyage of discovery under Hiram — and that, above all, an extraordinary amount of practical sense, of boldness, shrewdness, unscrupulousness, untiring energy, and happy genius, went far to replace some of the safe contrivances with which modern discoveries have made our mariners familiar. These qualities also mad