Back To "Phoenicia"

Although its inhabitants had a homogeneous civilization and considered themselves a single nation, Phoenicia was not a unified state but a group of city-kingdoms, one of which usually dominated the others. The most important of these cities were Simyra, Zarephath (Sarafand), Byblos, Jubeil, Arwad (Rouad), Acco ('Akko), Sidon (Sayda), Tripolis (Tripoli), Tyre (Sur), and Berytus (Beirut). The two most dominant were Tyre and Sidon, which alternated as sites of the ruling power.

The Phoenicians, called Sidonians in the Old Testament and Phoenicians by the Greek poet Homer, were Semites, related to the Canaanites. Historical research indicates that they founded their first settlements on the Mediterranean coast about 2500 BC. Early in their history, they developed under the influence of the Sumerian and Akkadian cultures of nearby Babylon. About 1800 scapsbc Egypt, which was then beginning to acquire an empire in the Middle East, invaded and took control of Phoenicia. Beginning about 1400 scapsbc raids of Egyptian territory by the Hittites weakened the Egyptian empire, giving the Phoenician cities an opportunity to revolt. By about 1200 scapsbc the Phoenicians were independent of Egypt.bcbc