PHOCION 



6117 



PHOENICIA 



From attalue in the 

 Vatican, Rome 



middle of the fith century B.C., the 

 majority of the inhabitants emi- 

 grated to Corsica and elsewhere. 



Phocion (402-317 BC.). Athen- 

 ian general and statesman. A com- 

 petent soldier, he distinguished 

 himself at the 

 battle of Naxos 

 in 376. at 

 Tamynae in 

 354, and by 

 raising the 

 siege of Byzan- 

 tium in " 339. 

 A sincere pa- 

 triot, noted for 

 his single- 

 minded integ- 

 rity, he never- 

 theless be- 

 longed to the 

 pro-Mace- 

 donian party at 

 Athens, believ- 

 ing that resist- 

 ance to Philip 

 and later to 

 Alexander and 

 Antipater was 

 useless, and 



Phocion, that he wa 



Athenian general doing a real 

 service to his 

 country by im- 

 pressing this idea on the Athenians. 

 In 318 Phocion was accused of 

 assisting the son of Polyperchon 

 to occupy the Piraeus, and was 

 condemned to death the next year. 



Phocis. Country of ancient 

 Greece. It lay N. of the Corinthian 

 Gulf and W. of Boeotia. It con- 

 tained the famous Mt. Parnassus 

 (g-.t;.), sacred to Apollo and the 

 Muses, and the equally famous 

 Delphic Oracle (see Delphi). The 

 population was chiefly Aeolic, 

 mostly occupied in pastoral pur- 

 suits. There were no large towns. 

 The Phocians were not conspicuous 

 in Greek history until the 4th cen- 

 tury B.C., when, owing to their 

 failure to assist them at the battle 

 of Mantinea in 362, the Thebans 

 instigated the Amphictyonic 

 Council (q.v.) to declare their land 

 forfeited to the Delphian Apollo. 

 The Phocians, led by an able 

 citizen, Philomelus, retorted by 

 seizing the treasure at Delphi and, 

 using it to hire mercenaries, defied 

 Thebes and the Amphictyons for 

 ten years, and only yielded in 346 

 when Philip of Macedon came to 

 the help of the Amphictyons. The 

 war is known as the Sacred War. 

 See Greece. 



Phoebe (Gr., bright). In Greek 

 mythology, name given to Artemis 

 as moon goddess, the female coun- 

 terpart of Phoebus. See Artemis. 



Phoebus. In Greek mythology, 

 name given to Apollo as sun god. 

 See Apollo. 



PHOENICIA: ITS CULTURE & COMMERCE 



A. D. Innes, M.A., and E. O. Harmer 



Related articles that may be consulted are those on Carthage ; Jews ; 

 Mediterranean; Palestine; Syria ; Tyre ; Sidon. See also Alphabet 



Phoenicia was the small terri- 

 tory on the E. coast of the Mediter- 

 ranean lying immediately N. of 

 Palestine, between the range of 

 Mount Lebanon and the sea. Its 

 length from Akko (the modern 

 Acre) northwards does not exceed 

 two hundred miles ; its breadth 

 averages perhaps fifteen miles. As 

 a military power Phoenicia played 

 no important part in the world's 

 history ; but she planted colonies, 

 one of which, Carthage, achieved 

 for a time an imperial position ; the 

 skill of the Phoenician seamen gave 

 their fleets a high value in maritime 

 warfare ; and their supremacy 

 in regard to seaborne commerce 

 was maintained, in spite of the 

 development of Greek rivalry, 

 until Phoenicia lost her separate 

 existence at the end of the fourth 

 century, and her offspring Car- 

 thage was crushed by Rome a 

 hundred years later. 



Language and Religion 



It is generally agreed that the 

 Phoenicians belonged to the great 

 race group known as the Semites. 

 Their language at least was Semitic, 

 closely related to Hebrew. Their 

 religion was based upon the wor- 

 ship of the male and female princi- 

 ples, commonl}' associated with the 

 names Baal and Ashtaroth, or 

 Astarte ; though in course of time 

 the two were multiplied by a pro- 

 cess resembling that by which in 

 medieval times popular supersti- 

 tion tended to make many saints 

 out of one who had several famous 

 shrines. Of Baal and the Baalim we 

 hear much in the Hebrew records ; 

 and we know that the worship of 

 Melek, the Moloch of the O.T., was 

 accompanied by human sacrifice, 

 and more particularly by the 

 burning of infant victims ; while 

 the worship of Ashtaroth carried 

 with it the repulsive practice of 

 religious prostitution. 



The destinies of Phoenicia were 

 determined by her geographical 

 position. The Semitic wave which 

 bears the general name of Canaan - 

 ite occupied Palestine and the 

 regions to the N. of it a century 

 or two before 2000 B.C. Between 

 1600 and 1200 the S. portion was 

 conquered by fresh Semitic tribes 

 from the S., the Hebrews, and by 

 the Philistines, maritime invaders 

 from across the sea. But the N. 

 Canaanites, the Phoenicians, were 

 able to hold their own against both 

 the invaders, since they were open 

 to attack only by sea or by the two 

 narrow entries in the N. and on the 

 S. the mountains of Lebanon 



providing them with an effective 

 barrier along the whole rear. This 

 security upon the landward side 

 encouraged maritime development ; 

 so that the Phoenicians were 

 already able to resist the attack of 

 the Philistine pirates, and learnt 

 the advantage of devoting them- 

 selves to commerce in the cen- 

 turies when other nations and other 

 races were still engaged in a per- 

 petual struggle to win a foothold in 

 new territories, or to hold these 

 territories against invaders. 



The fame of the Phoenicians is 

 due to their supremacy as navi- 

 gators over all rivals. In the 5th 

 century the pre-eminence for a 

 thousand years which they had in- 

 herited was still undisputed. They 

 alone of seafaring men had passed 

 out of the Mediterranean, coasted 

 along Spain and France, established 

 a trade with the " Tin islands "- 

 the vScilly Isles and Cornwall and 

 penetrated possibly as far as the 

 Baltic, from which they procured 

 amber. Moreover, Phoenician ships 

 in the Egyptian service actu- 

 ally accomplished the circum- 

 navigation of Africa about the year 

 610 B.C., though the voyage was 

 not repeated. They are the single 

 people in the ancient world who 

 lived for commerce ; they sought 

 no territorial dominion ; if they 

 plan-ted out colonies, the primary 

 intention at least was merely the 

 establishment of trading stations 

 like those of the English in India 

 during the 17th century ; Carthage 

 alone, long after its foundation, 

 sought to develop upon imperial 

 lines, and to establish" a political 

 ascendancy where she secured a 

 commercial footing. First of men, 

 the Phoenicians learnt that sea- 

 fighting is primarily a matter of 

 seamanship, and, being skilled 

 ssamen, could defy attacks by sea. 

 Commercial Importance 



Like the maritime Italian cities 

 of the Middle Ages, the Phoenician 

 ports became the commercial 

 emporiums of the ancient world, 

 and they waxed wealthy ; but the 

 Phoenicians are not to be credited 

 with any remarkable manufactur- 

 ing inventions. It was the exploi- 

 tation of ancient purple dyes, not 

 their discovery, for which they be- 

 came famous.' In the making of 

 glass, wherein they excelled, they 

 only turned to better account pro- 

 cesses already invented by the 

 Egyptians, and their reputation 

 as clothmakers was attained by 

 improved methods rather than 

 by original discoveries. Phoenicia 



