Phoenicia at The Ancient Mediterranean

Phoenicia Map
Maximum extent of the Phoenician empire, ca. 600 BC.

Phoenicia was an ancient civilization in the north of Canaan, with its heartland along the coastal plains of what are now Lebanon and Syria. Phoenician civilization was an enterprising maritime trading culture that spread across the Mediterranean during the first millennium BC. Although the people of the region called themselves the Canaani, the name Phoenicia became common thanks to the Greeks who called them the Phoiniki, the Greek word for the colour purple due to the famous dye, Tyrian purple. Phoenician trade was founded on this violet-purple dye derived from the Murex sea-snail’s shell, once profusely available in coastal waters but exploited to local extinction.

In the centuries following 1200 BC, the Phoenicians formed the major naval and trading power of the region. Textiles dyed with phoenician purple were a part of Phoenician wealth. Phoenician glass was another export ware. Phoenicians seem to have first discovered the technique of producing transparent glass. Phoenicians also shipped tall Lebanon cedars to Egypt, a civilization that consumed more wood than it could produce. From elsewhere they got many other materials, perhaps the most important being tin from Spain and possibly even Britain, that together with copper (from Cyprus) was used to make bronze. Trade routes from Asia converged on the Phoenician coast as well, enabling the Phoenicians to govern trade between Mesopotamia on the one side, and Egypt and Arabia on the other.

The Phoenicians established commercial outposts throughout the Mediterranean, the most strategically important ones being Carthage in North Africa, and directly across the narrow straits in Sicily, carefully selected with the design of monopolizing the Mediterranean trade beyond that point and keeping their rivals from passing through. Other colonies were planted in Cyprus, Corsica, Sardinia, the Iberian Peninsula, and elsewhere.

The Phoenicians exerted considerable influence on the other groups around the Mediterranean, notably the Greeks, who later became their main commercial rivals. They appear in Greek mythology. In the Bible, king Hiram of Tyre is mentioned as cooperating with Solomon in mounting an expedition on the Red Sea and on building the temple. The Temple of Solomon is considered to be built according to Phoenician design, and its description is considered the best description of what a Phoenician temple looked like.

The Phoenician alphabet was developed around 1200 BC. The Greek alphabet as well as the alphabets of the Middle East and India are thought to derive from the Phoenician one.

With the rise of Assyria, the Phoenician cities one by one lost their independence; however the city of Tyre, situated just off the mainland and protected by powerful fleets, proved impossible to take for the Assyrians, and many others after them. The Phoenician cities were later dominated by Babylon, then Persia. They remained very important, however, and provided these powers with their main source of naval strength. The stacked warships, such as triremes and quinqueremes, were probably Phoenician inventions, though eagerly adopted by the Greeks. Tyre itself was never conquered until the coming of Alexander. In 332 BC, he built a causeway from the mainland to the island leading to Tyre’s capitulation, but it continued to maintain much of its commercial importance until the Christian era.

Hiram

Hiram I was king of Tyre from 969 BC to 936 BC, succeeding his father, Abibaal. During his reign, Tyre grew from a satellite of Sidon into the most important of Phoenician cities, and the holder of a large trading empire. Hiram allied himself with king Solomon of Israel, the upcoming power of the region; together they would fill the power gap left by the retreat of Egypt when Assyria and Damascus were unable to do so. Through the alliance with Solomon, Hiram ensured himself access to the major trade routes to Egypt, Arabia and Mesopotamia. The two kings also joined forces in starting a trade route over the Red Sea, connecting the Israelite harbour of Ezion-Geber with a land called Ophir. Both kings grew rich through this trade. Hiram sent Solomon architects, workmen and cedar wood to build the First Temple in Jerusalem. He also extended the Tyrean harbour, enlarged the city by joining the two islands on which it was built, and built a royal palace and a temple for Melquart.

Hiram

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