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(Phoinike); Phoenicia is found in only one passage. Phoenicia;
an Asiatic country on the Syrian coast. It was bounded on the north by the river
Eleutherus, on the south by Mount Carmel, and on the east by Palestine and Coelesyria.
It largely consisted of fertile, well-watered valleys, its chief rivers being
the Eleutherus, the Sabbaticus, the Tripolis, the Adonis, the Lycus , the Magoras,
the Tamyras, the Leo, the Lita, the Belus, and the Kishon. Its principal cities
were Sidon, Tripolis, Byblus, Tyrus, Berytus, and Ptolemais. Phoenicia being little
more than a narrow strip of coast, was almost necessarily a maritime country,
and its cities for many centuries were at the head of naval power in ancient times.
See Sidon; Tyrus.
Their commerce extended over the known world, and they became
everywhere known for their traffic and dyestuffs, especially the Tyrian purple,
glass, tin, and amber. They also, in connection with their commerce, established
many colonies within the Mediterranean on various islands, on the north coast
of Africa, and even on the western coasts of Spain and Africa. They also had settlements
on the Euxine Sea. In Gaul the city of Massilia was founded by the Phoenicians.
In race the Phoenicians must be classed as Semitic, as is evident
from the language which they spoke and of which our knowledge is derived from
a large number of inscriptions, mostly mortuary and votive, found in Phoenicia
itself and more numerously on the site of Carthage and Citium. A number of Phoenician
phrases are found transliterated in the comedy of Plautus mentioned below. The
native Phoenician literature seems not to have been extensive, and of it nothing
has been preserved except some fragments such as the Greek translation of Sanchuniathon
and Hanno. The inscriptions, such as they are, cover, roughly speaking, a period
extending from B.C. 600 to A.D. 250. Like the other Semitic languages the Phoenician
is written without the vowel points. Some scholars have regarded the language
as being so closely allied to Hebrew as to be almost capable of classification
as a Hebrew dialect. Phoenician is more archaic in its structure, simpler in its
syntax, and with an apparently limited vocabulary, but this last is perhaps an
unsafe generalization owing to the fact that so little material has survived from
which to judge of it. The Phoenician script is the prototype of the Greek and
Roman alphabets as well as of the principal Semitic scripts. The oldest specimen
of it is the Moabite Stone. The origin of the Phoenician itself is doubtful. Some
scholars, like De Rouge, consider it a derivative from the Egyptian hieroglyphics.
The language spoken in Carthage was practically the same as the original Phoenician,
with differences in the pronunciation and orthography, and to some extent in the
script. A curious bit of Phoenician exists in the Poenulus of Plautus, where one
of the speakers utters some sentences in Carthaginian. The interpretation of the
passage has puzzled scholars for generations.
The influence of the Phoenicians upon Greek art has some importance,
as from them the Greeks borrowed the types for all their early gold and silver
work and for their vase patterns. The Greek religion was also influenced by them,
on which see the article Aphrodite.
The internal history of Phoenicia is not very well known, nor
is its form of government thoroughly understood. Particularism seems to have been
its character, and the different cities of Phoenicia were practically independent
of one another. Hence, at different periods, they fell an easy prey to invaders
from Egypt, Assyria, Macedon, and Rome. At the earliest period of which we have
any knowledge Phoenicia is found a dependency of Egypt, ruled by Egyptian governors
and paying an annual tribute. About B.C. 1300 Egypt lost this hold owing to internal
disturbances, which compelled her to give up her foreign possessions, and for
several centuries after this the importance of the Phoenicians attains its height.
About B.C. 800 the Assyrians obtained at least a nominal control and exacted tribute
from the Phoenician cities, though without interfering with their commercial importance.
Subsequently they were subdued by the Babylonians, the Persians, and the Macedonians,
and under the Romans Phoenicia was incorporated into the province of Syria, while
under the Empire it became the province of Phoenice Libanensis.
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Phoenicia is a narrow strip of land, about one hundred and fifty miles
long and thirty miles wide, shut in between the Mediterranean on the west and
the high range of Lebanon on the east, and consisting mostly of a succession of
narrow valleys, ravines, and hills, the latter descending gradually towards the
sea. On the north it is bounded by the River Orontes and Mount Casius, and by
Mount Carmel on the south. The land is fertile and well irrigated by numerous
torrents and streams deriving their waters mainly from the melting snows and rain-storms
of the winter and spring seasons. The principal vegetation consists of the renowned
cedars of Lebanon, cypresses, pines, palms, olive, vine, fig, and pomegranates.
On this narrow strip of land, the Ph?;nicians had twenty-five cities of which
the most important were Tyre, Sidon, Aradus, Byblus, Marathus, and Tripolis. Less
important were Laodicea, Simyra, Arca, Aphaca, Berytus, Ecdippa, Akko, Dor, Joppa,
Gabala, Betrys, and Sarepta. The name "Phoenicia" is in all probability of Greek
origin, phoiniks being a Greek derivative of phoinos, blood-red. Our principal
sources of information concerning Phoenicia are: first, numerous Phoenician inscriptions
found in Phoenicia, Cyprus, Egypt, Greece, Sicily, Spain, Africa, Italy, and France,
and published in the "Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum", the oldest being a simple
one of the ninth century B. C.; the rest of little historical value, and of comparatively
late date, i.e., from the fourth century B.C. down; second, Egyptian and Assyro-Babylonian
historical inscriptions, especially the Tell-el-Amarna letters of the fifteenth
century B.C., in which are found frequent and valuable references to Phoenicia
and its political relations with Western Asia and Egypt; the Old Testament, especially
in III Kings, v, xvi; Isaias, xxiii; Jeremias, xxv, xxvii, and Ezechiel, xxvi-xxxii;
finally, some Greek and Latin historians and writers, both ecclesiastical and
pagan.
The oldest historical references to Phoenicia are found in the Egyptian
inscriptions of the Pharaohs, Aahmes (1587-62 B.C.) and his successors Thothmes
I (1541-16 B.C.), and Thothmes III (1503-1449 B.C.) in which the Phoenicians are
called "Dahe" or "Zahi", and "Fenkhu". In the Tell-el-Amarna letters is found
much interesting information concerning their cities and especially Tyre, famous
for her wealth. During all this period Egyptian suzerainty was more or less effective.
Sidon was gradually eclipsed by the rising power and wealth of Tyre, against which
the Philistines were powerless, though they constantly attacked the former. About
the year 1250, after conquering Ashdod, Askelon, Ekron, Gaza, and Gath, they forced
the Sidonians to surrender the city of Dor. At this time Tyre became foremost
in Phoenicia and one of the greatest and wealthiest cities of the Mediterranean
region. Its first king was Hiram, the son of Abi-Baal and contemporary of David
and Solomon. His reign lasted some forty years, and to his energy Tyre owed much
of its renown. He enlarged the city, surrounding it with massive walls, improved
its harbours, and rebuilt the temple of Melkarth. He forced the Philistine pirates
to retreat, thus securing prosperity in maritime commerce and caravan trade, and
Ph?;nician colonization spread along the coast of Asia Minor, Sicily, Greece,
and Africa. He established a commercial alliance with the Hebrews, and his Ph?;nician
artists and craftsmen greatly aided them in building the temple, and palaces of
Solomon. He quelled the revolt in Utica and established Phoenician supremacy in
North Africa where Carthage, the most important of all Phoenician colonies, was
later built.
Hiram was succeeded in 922 by his son Abd-Starte I, who, after seven
years of troubled reign, was murdered, and most of his successors also met with
a violent end. About this time hostilities arose between Phoenicia and Assyria,
although two centuries earlier Tiglath-pileser I, when marching through the northern
part of Phoenicia, was hospitably entertained by the inhabitants of Aradus. In
880 Ithbaal became King of Phoenicia, contemporaneous with Asshur-nasir-pal in
Assyria and Achab in Israel. He was succeeded by Baal-azar and Metten I. Metten
reigned for nine years and died, leaving Pygmalion, an infant son, but nominating
as his successor Sicharbas, the high priest of Melkarth, who was married to Elissa,
his daughter. The tale runs that when Pygmalion came to manhood he killed Sicharbas,
upon which Elissa, with such nobles as adhered to her, fled first to Cyprus and
afterwards to Africa, where the colony of Carthage was founded (c. 850 B.C.).
Asshur-nasir-pal and his son and successor Shalmaneser II nominally conquered
Phoenicia; but in 745 B.C. Tiglath- pileser III compelled the northern tribes
to accept Assyrian governors. As soon as this scheme of complete absorption became
manifest a general conflict ensued, from which Assyria emerged victorious and
several Phoenician cities were captured and destroyed. The invasion of Shalmaneser
IV in 727 was frustrated, but in 722 he almost sacked the city of Tyre. Sargon,
his successor and great general, compelled Elul?us, King of Tyre, to come to honourable
terms with him. In 701 Sennacherib conquered the revolting cities of Syria and
Phoenicia. Elulaeus fled to Cyprus and Tubaal was made king.
In 680 Abd-Melkarth, his successor, rebelled against the Assyrian
domination, but fled before Esarhaddon, the son of Sennacherib. Sidon was practically
destroyed, most of its inhabitants carried off to Assyria, and their places filled
by captives from Babylonia and Elam. During the reign of Asshurbanipal (668-625
B.C.) Tyre was once more attacked and conquered, but, as usual, honourably treated.
In 606 the Assyrian empire itself was demolished by the allied Babylonians and
Medes, and in 605 Nabuchadonosor, son and successor of Nabopolassar, after having
conquered Elam and the adjacent countries, subdued (586 B.C.) Syria, Palestine,
Phoenicia, and Egypt. As the Tyrians had command of the sea, it was thirteen years
before their city surrendered, but the long siege crippled its commerce, and Sidon
regained its ancient position as the leading city. Phoenicia was passing through
its final stage of national independence and glory. From the fifth century on,
it was continually harassed by the incursions of various Greek colonies who gradually
absorbed its commerce and industry. It passed repeatedly under the rule of the
Medo-Persian kings, Cyrus, Cambyses, Darius, and finally Xerxes, who attacked
the Athenians at Salamis with the aid of the Phoenician navy, but their fleet
was defeated and destroyed. In 332, it was finally and completely conquered by
Alexander the Great, after whose death and subsequent to the partition of his
great Macedonian empire amongst his four generals, it fell to Laodemon. In 214,
Ptolemy attacked Laodemon and annexed Phoenicia to Egypt. In 198 B.C., it was
absorbed by the Seleucid dynasty of Syria, after the downfall of which (65 A.D.),
it became a Roman province and remained such till the Mohammedan conquest of Syria
in the seventh century. Phoenicia now forms one of the most important Turkish
vilayets of Syria with Beyrout as its principal city.
The whole political history and constitution of Phoenicia may be summarized
as follows: The Phoenicians never built an empire, but each city had its little
independent territory, assemblies, kings, and government, and for general state
business sent delegates to Tyre. They were not a military, but essentially a seafaring
and commercial people, and were successively conquered by the Egyptians, Assyrians,
Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, and Romans, to whom, because of their great wealth,
they fulfilled all their obligations by the payment of tribute. Although blessed
with fertile land and well provided by nature, the Phoenicians, owing to their
small territory and comparatively large population, were compelled, from the very
remotest antiquity, to gain their livelihood through commerce. Hence, their numerous
caravan routes to the East, and their wonderful marine commerce with the West.
They were the only nation of the ancient East who had a navy. By land they pushed
their trade to Arabia for gold, agate, onyx, incense, and myrrh; to India for
pearls, spices, ivory, ebony, and ostrich plumes; to Mesopotamia for cotton and
linen clothes; to Palestine and Egypt for grain, wheat, and barley; to the regions
of the Black Sea for horses, slaves, and copper. By sea they encircled all the
Mediterranean coast, along Syria, North Africa, Asia Minor, the Aegean Sea, and
even Spain, France, and England. A logical result of this remarkable commercial
activity was the founding in Cyprus, Egypt, Crete, Sicily, Africa, Malta, Sardinia,
Spain, Asia Minor, and Greece of numerous colonies, which became important centres
of Phoenician commerce and civilization, and in due time left their deep mark
upon the history and civilization of the classical nations of the Mediterranean
world.
Owing to this activity also, the Phoenician developed neither literature
nor acts. The work done by them for Solomon shows that their architectural and
mechanical skill was great only in superiority to that of the Hebrews. The remains
of their architecture are heavy and their aesthetic art is primitive in character.
In literature, they left nothing worthy of preservation. To them is ascribed the
simplification of the primitive, pictorial or ideographic, and syllabic systems
of writing into an alphabetic one consisting of twenty-two letters and written
from right to left, from which are derived all the later and modern Semitic and
European alphabets. This tradition, however, must be accepted with some modification.
There is also no agreement as to whether the basis of this Phoenician alphabet
is of Egyptian (hieroglyphic and hieratic) or of Assyro-Babylonian (cuneiform)
origin. Those who derive it from a Cypriot prototype have not as yet sufficiently
demonstrated the plausibility and probability of their opinion. The recent discovery
of numerous Minoan inscriptions in the Island of Crete, some of them dating as
early as 2000 B.C., has considerably complicated the problem. Other inventions,
or improvements, in science and mechanics, such as weights and measures, glass
manufacture, coinage, the finding of the polar star, and navigation are perhaps
justly attributed to the Phoenicians. Both ethnographically and linguistically,
they belong to the so-called Semitic group. They were called Canaanites, and spoke
a dialectical variety of the Canaanite group of Western Semitic tongues, closely
akin to the dialects of the Semitic inhabitants of Syria, Palestine, and Canaan.
A few specimens of their language, as it was spoken by the colonies in North Africa
towards the end of the third century B.C., may still be read in Plautus, from
which it appears to have already attained a great degree of consonantal and vocal
decay. The dialect of the inscriptions is more archaic and less corrupt.
Our information concerning the religion of the Phoenicians is meagre
and mainly found in the Old Testament, in classical traditions, and legends. Of
special interest, however, are the votive inscriptions in which a great number
of proper names generally construed with that of some divinity are found. Phoenician
polytheism, like that of the other Semitic nations, was based partly on Animism
and partly on the worship of the great powers of nature, mostly of astral origin.
They deified the sun and the moon, which they considered the great forces that
create and destroy, and called them Baal and Astaroth. Each city had its divine
pair: at Sidon it was Baal Sidon (the sun) and Astarte (the moon); at Gebel, Baal
Tummuz and Baaleth; at Carthage, Baal Hamon and Tanith. But the same god changed
his name according as he was conceived as creator or destroyer; thus Baal as destroyer
was worshipped at Carthage under the name of Moloch. These gods, represented by
idols, had their temples, altars, and priests. As creators they were honoured
with orgies and tumultuous feasts; as destroyers by human victims. Astoreth (Venus),
whom the Sidonians represented by the crescent of the moon and the dove, had her
cult in the sacred woods. Baal Moloch was figured at Carthage as a bronze colossus
with arms extended and lowered. To appease him children were laid in his arms,
and fell at once into a pit of fire. When Agathocles besieged the city the principal
Carthaginians sacrificed to Moloch as many as two hundred of their children. Although
this sensual and sanguinary religion inspired the surrounding nations with horror,
they, nevertheless, imitated it. Hence, the Hebrews frequently sacrificed to Baal
on the mountains, and the Greeks adored Astarte of Sidon under the name of Aphrodite,
and Baal Melkart of Tyre under the name of Herakles. The principal Phoenician
divinities are Adonis, El, Eshmon, Baal, Gad, Moloch, Melkarth, Sakan, Anath,
Astaroth, Rasaph, Sad, and many others. (For the history of Christianity in Phoenicia
and its present condition see SYRIA.)
Gabriel Oussani, ed.
Transcribed by: WGKofron
This text is cited June 2004 from The Catholic Encyclopedia, New Advent online edition URL below.
Province along the Mediterranean coast of Syria.
Phoenicia was the homeland of the Phoenicians, a semitic people. The Phoenician
civilisation could be traced back as far as the XIIIth century B. C.. In biblical
times, the Phoenicians were heavily involved in maritime trade and Tyre
was one of the busiest harbours of the whole Mediterranean, an extremely wealthy
city. They had established trading posts in various parts of the Mediterranean,
as far as Carthage, founded
toward the end of the IXth century B. C.
For the Greeks, Phoenicians were the descendants of Phoenix, a son
of Agenor and brother of Cadmus, Cilix , Thasus and Europa. Agenor traced his
origins to Io, the Argive princess abducted by Zeus and changed by Hera into a
heifer: Epaphus, Io's son by Zeus, who was born after she had arrived in the Nile
region, had married Memphis, the daughter of the River-God Nile, from which he
had had a daughter named Libya, who, from Poseidon, became the mother of twins,
Belus, who became king of Egypt,
and Agenor, who settled in Syria.
After Agenor's daughter Europa had been loved and abducted by Zeus under the guise
of a bull to become the mother of the Cretan king Minos, he asked his four sons
to run the world and not come back until they had found her, which led them in
all sorts of places where they founded cities and established settlements: Phoenix
in Tyre and Sidon,
where he gave his name to the Phoenicians, Cilix in Cilicia
, Thasus in the island of Thasos,
Cadmus in various places including the island of Thera,
before settling in Boeotia
where he founded Thebes.
These wanderings preserve a legendary version of the expeditions of
Phoenicians throughout the Mediterranean and of their settlements in various places.
Through these wanderings, Phoenicians introduced in other parts of the Mediterranean
world various inventions of theirs, including the alphabet which they probably
invented around 1100 B. C. and which was introduced in Greece
toward the end of the IXth century B. C. or beginning of the VIIIth, replacing
earlier syllabic systems known as Linear A and B to give birth to the Greek alphabet.
Bernard Suzanne (page last updated 1998), ed.
This text is cited July 2003 from the Plato and his dialogues URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks.
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