Phoenicians

The Phoenicians were Semitic-speaking coastal peoples of the Levant whose independent city-states—above all Tyre, Sidon, Byblos, and Arwad—prospered through maritime trade and colonization across the Mediterranean during the 2nd and especially the 1st millennium BCE, with activity continuing under imperial rule into the Roman era, according to the standard geographic and historical outlines presented by Britannica. Their homeland roughly corresponds to modern Lebanon and adjacent coasts of Syria and Israel, with city-based political identities rather than a unified territorial state, as emphasized by Britannica and the Metropolitan Museum’s overview essay (The Met).

Etymology and self-identity

–The term “Phoenicians” (Greek Phoinikes) is an exonym; inhabitants identified primarily by their cities (e.g., “Tyrians,” “Sidonians”), and modern scholarship underlines that a single collective self-designation is not attested in local sources, a point stressed in recent syntheses such as Josephine Quinn’s monograph (book://Josephine Quinn|In Search of the Phoenicians|Princeton University Press|2018) and reflected in accessible summaries by Britannica and a 2025 National Geographic survey discussing how the label emerged in Greek discourse (National Geographic).

Homeland, cities, and political organization

–Byblos, Sidon, Tyre, and Arwad formed a belt of city-states along the narrow Levantine littoral; early ties between Byblos and Egypt are archaeologically well attested, and Byblos became a key center by the late Bronze Age (Britannica; UNESCO – Byblos).
–Government in these cities combined kingship with strong influence from merchant elites, and large-scale federation is not documented; hegemony shifted among cities across periods (Britannica).

Economy, craft, and seafaring

–The cities specialized in seaborne exchange of timber (notably Lebanon cedar), purple-dyed textiles, metalwork, ivories, and glass, as underscored by the Metropolitan Museum’s overview (The Met). Assyrian reliefs depict Mediterranean-style ships transporting timber—imagery often linked with Phoenician maritime labor and technology (British Museum object panels from Nineveh and Khorsabad: BM panel, Sennacherib; BM fragment, Tiglath-pileser III; overview in [JAOS 106 (1986)](journal://Journal of the American Oriental Society|The Khorsabad Wall Relief: A Mediterranean Seascape or River Transport of Timbers?|1986)).
–Tyrian purple, extracted from murex sea snails, became a luxury dye with production centers attested around Tyre and at western sites; technical and cultural aspects are summarized by the University of Chicago’s history of color exhibit and a conservation materials profile (UChicago Library; CAMEO), with broader historical context in National Geographic and History.com.
–Glassworking and trade in glass are widely associated with Levantine centers; the innovation of glassblowing in the wider Syrian region during the 1st century BCE is treated in Britannica, which notes early hubs including the Sidon-Aleppo-Palmyra corridor.

Colonization and the western network

–From the late 2nd to early 1st millennium BCE, Levantine cities established waystations and colonies across Cyprus, North Africa, Sicily and Sardinia, and Iberia; the most prominent foundation was Carthage, traditionally dated to 814 BCE, which grew into the dominant Phoenician polity of the western Mediterranean (Britannica – Carthage; Britannica – Phoenicia; book://María Eugenia Aubet|The Phoenicians and the West: Politics, Colonies and Trade|Cambridge University Press|2001; Livius).
–Gadir (modern Cádiz) on the Atlantic façade is traditionally ascribed to Tyrian foundation (often placed in the 12th–10th centuries BCE); Phoenician sarcophagi found locally support an early, substantial presence (Britannica – Cádiz).
–The “Periplus of Hanno,” a Greek translation of a Punic inscription, preserves a Carthaginian expedition along the Atlantic coast of Africa, a key primary text for western exploration (document://Periplus of Hanno|c. 5th century BCE; accessible at Wikisource edition).

Language and writing

–The Phoenician language belongs to the Northwest Semitic (Canaanite) branch and is closely related to Hebrew and Moabite; in the homeland it was gradually supplanted by Aramaic during the Hellenistic period, while its western form, Punic, persisted in North Africa into late antiquity (Britannica – Phoenician language; Britannica – Punic language).
–The Phoenician alphabet is a 22-letter consonantal script attested in the Levant by the 11th–10th centuries BCE (e.g., the Ahiram sarcophagus from Byblos) and categorized by varieties including Cypro-Phoenician and later Punic; its adoption by Greeks (with vowel notation) decisively influenced subsequent Mediterranean writing systems (Britannica – Phoenician alphabet; UNESCO – Byblos Memory of the World note via WH listing; Britannica – Greek alphabet; book://Peter T. Daniels & William Bright (eds.)|The World’s Writing Systems|Oxford University Press|1996; book://Anne Jeffery|The Local Scripts of Archaic Greece|Oxford University Press|1990).

Religion and society

–Cults varied by city but shared Northwest Semitic features; prominent deities included Melqart (Tyre), Astarte/Ashtart (especially at Sidon and Tyre), Baalat (Byblos), and Eshmun (Sidon). Classical equation of Melqart with Heracles is credited already in Greek accounts, and archaeological remains of sanctuaries occur both in the Levant and in colonies (Britannica – Melqart; Britannica – Astarte; Britannica – Baalat).

Imperial contexts and conflicts

–The cities paid tribute to successive Near Eastern empires: Assyrian pressure is visible from the 9th–7th centuries BCE, including punitive campaigns and sieges (e.g., against Sidon and Tyre), and the famous 13‑year Neo-Babylonian siege of Tyre under Nebuchadnezzar II (traditionally dated 585–573 BCE) (Britannica – Lebanon, Assyrian and Babylonian domination; Britannica – Tyre).
–Under the Achaemenid Empire, Phoenician fleets served Persian campaigns; Sidon’s revolt against Artaxerxes III ended with the city’s destruction in the 340s BCE (Britannica – Artaxerxes III).
–Alexander the Great’s 332 BCE siege and capture of Tyre, after a months-long blockade and causeway construction, marked a decisive shift in Levantine power networks; subsequent Hellenistic rule alternated between Ptolemies and Seleucids, followed by Roman incorporation (Britannica – Tyre; Britannica – Phoenicia).

Exploration narratives and primary testimonies

–Herodotus preserves the story of a pharaonic commission to Phoenician mariners under Necho II to circumnavigate Africa, a debated but ancient testimony notable for its detail that the sun appeared “on the right,” consistent with sailing in the southern hemisphere (Lexundria Greek/English Herodotus 4.42).
–The “Periplus of Hanno” gives a Carthaginian west African itinerary in late archaic/early classical times (document://Periplus of Hanno|c. 5th century BCE; Wikisource).

Archaeology and material legacy

–Phoenician phases at Byblos and Tyre are part of UNESCO World Heritage inscriptions, and Phoenician objects (ivories, glass, coinage) are widely represented in museum collections; Tyrian silver shekels attest to later civic coinage under Hellenistic/Roman hegemony (UNESCO – Tyre; UNESCO – Byblos; British Museum examples from Tyre: BM 1906,0712.100, BM 1929,0403.4).

Legacy

–The spread and adaptation of the Levantine consonantal script by the Greeks (with vowels) underpinned later Latin and other alphabets; Punic remained in use in North Africa for centuries after Rome’s destruction of Carthage, with late references in Augustine and bilingual inscriptions (Britannica – Greek alphabet; Britannica – Punic language).