PHOENICIA 



6118 



PHOENICIA 



made no original contribution to 

 art ; but it was in strict accord 

 with the Phoenician genius that it 

 should have made the great 

 advance upon early systems of 

 script or writing which rendered 

 the Phoenician alphabet the basis 

 of those which ultimately prevailed 

 in the Western world. 



Phoenicia never formed a united 

 nation with a common govern- 

 ment. It was a group of city states, 

 of which the most important were 

 Arvad (Aradus), on the N., Gebal 

 (called by the Greeks Byblos and 

 by the Egyptians Kapun), Beirut, 

 Sidon, and* Tyre on the S. Early in 

 the 15th century B.O. the conqueror 

 Thothmes III brought them under 

 the Egyptian supremacy (see 

 Egypt), and they became tribu- 

 taries, though otherwise remaining 

 autonomous. At this time Byblos 

 apparently held the leading posi- 

 tion. By the 13th century the 

 yoke of Egypt slipped off, and 

 Phoenicia was again independent, 

 the leadership having passed to 

 Sidon, which thenceforth disputes 

 the premier position with Tyre. 

 Politically, in fact, Tyre seems 

 soon to have predominated, the 

 result, perhaps, of its extraordinary 

 strength as a fortress ; but Sidon 

 probably enjoyed a prestige of its 

 own as the religious centre. In the 

 Homeric poems, not Tyrian but 

 Sidonian stands as the general 

 equivalent for Phoenician. During 

 the 13th and 12th centuries Tyre 

 and Sidon were planting out 

 colonies along the coast of Africa 

 at Utica and elsewhere, and even 

 beyond the Straits of Gibraltar in 

 Spain, at Gades and Tartessus, 

 which is usually identified with the 

 Tarshish of the Bible. 



Relations with the Hebrews 

 In the llth century the Hebrew 

 records show that Tyre had defin- 

 itely become the leading Phoenician 

 state. Hiram, king of Tyre, was the 

 ally of David and Solomon during 

 the brief period of Hebrew con- 

 solidation and expansion, which 

 broke down with the disruption 

 that followed the death of Solo- 

 mon. The relations between 

 Phoenicia and the Hebrew king- 

 doms were maintained, and Ahab, 

 king of Israel, married Jezebel, 

 daughter of Ethbaal or Ithobal, 

 king of Tyre and Sidon, in the ear- 

 lier half of the 9th century. It was 

 about this time, however, that the 

 power of Assyria was extending, 

 and Phoenicia before 840 had be- 

 come tributary to Shalrnaneser III. 

 After 730 Tyre revolted, and 

 successfully defied the power of 

 Shalmaneser V. Phoenicia was 

 again subjugated by Sennacherib, 

 about 700, and though she again 

 achieved a brief freedom when 



Assyria was shattered towards the 

 end of the 7th century by the rise 

 of the new Babylonian empire, she 

 soon found herself forced to submit 

 to Nebuchadrezzar, though Tyre, 

 on its island fortress, held out 

 against his attack for 13 years; 

 Phoenicia yielded a ready submis- 

 sion to Cambyses in 527; 



Then for two hundred years 

 Phoenicia formed art autonomous 

 province within one of the great 

 satrapies of the Persian empire, 

 providing the Persian kings with 

 the most efficient contingents of 

 their fleets. In 351, however, 

 Phoenicia revolted. Overwhelming 

 armies were poured into the pro- 

 vince ; resistance was hopeless ; 

 but the people of Sidon rather 

 than submit chose to make a 

 literal holocaust of the city, when 

 40,000 of the inhabitants are said 

 to have perished in the flames (345). 

 Eleven years later, when Alexander 

 the Great invaded Persia, his 

 movements were greatly hampered 

 by the fact that his enemy had 

 command of the sea, because the 

 Phoenician fleet still served the 

 Great King, though its loyalty 

 cannot have been deeply rooted. 

 But after Alexander had put 

 Darius to rout at the Issus (333), 

 the cities of Phoenicia, with the 

 exception of Tyre, broke from the 

 Persian allegiance and submitted 

 to the Macedonian. 



Siege of Tyre 



Then ensued one of the most 

 memorable sieges in classical his- 

 tory. Tyre, on its island, had de- 

 fied Nebuchadrezzar for 13 years ; 

 now it defied Alexander. It was 

 only by means of engineering 

 operations without precedent or 

 parallel that the great master of 

 war was at last enabled to storm 

 the fortress after an heroic defence ; 

 nor would that success have been 

 within his reach but for the acces- 

 sion of the Phoenician fleet, with 

 the exception of the Tyrian navy 

 itself. With the fall of Tyre in July, 

 332, the separate history of 

 Phoenicia comes to an end. The 

 history of Greater Phoenicia, the 

 independent Phoenician colonies, 

 was to all intents and purposes the 

 history of Carthage. A. . innes 



ARCHAEOLOGY. Material re- 

 mains of the Phoenician civiliza- 

 tion have been sparingly recovered 

 in the homeland. Marked by an 

 imitative rather than a creative 

 spirit, the earlier examples form 

 an imperfect amalgam of Egyptian 

 and Mesopotamian motives, the 

 later an unskilful adaptation of 

 Hellenistic art. 



Along the coast are many rock- 

 cut tombs, sometimes with re- 

 mains of monolithic and other 

 external structures. Some have 



yielded sarcophagi shaped like 

 swathed mummies. The finest, 

 that of Eshmunazar, in Paris, and 

 that of his father Tabnith, in Con- 

 stantinople, were bdth Egyptian 

 importations ; the local work is 

 inferior. The primitive temple at 

 Amrith, the only orie extant in 

 Phoenicia, copied the Egyptian 

 style. The preference for megal- 

 ithic massed is shown by the Arvad 

 city walls and the Thapsus harbour 

 works. In 1920 the fortifications 

 surrounding the Sicilian island of 

 Motya were reported to have been 

 traced. 



No specimens of Phoenician 

 weaving or dyeing have been 

 identified. The importance of the 

 purple industry is attested by 

 immense shell-mounds near Sidon 

 and Tyre ; how far their textile 

 trade was served by native looms 

 is unknown. Glasswork is repre- 

 sented by small ointment flasks 

 tinted with metallic oxides, and by 

 opaque glazes copied from Egyp- 

 tian faience which were used for 

 imitation jewelry, amulets, and the 

 like, produced for export. Terra- 

 cotta figurines of indifferent quality 

 were turned out for the same trade. 

 Skill in Metal Work 



Excellent work was done in 

 engraving and hammering sheet 

 metal. Cups and platters, or 

 paterae, in silver and silver-gilt, 

 with mythical scenes and illustra- 

 tions of daily life, sometimes bear 

 Phoenician inscriptions, but the 

 best were Cypriote. One such 

 Cyprus bowl, with the name of 

 Hiram, king of Tyre, exhibits the 

 oldest example of Phoenician 

 writing. Bronze paterae unearthed 

 at Nimrud, associated with ivory 

 carvings, sometimes reveal the 

 names of Phoenician artisans, pre- 

 sumably attached to the Assyrian 

 court. Unimaginative mixtures of 

 styles characterise much Phoenician 

 work, as in the form of the sphinx, 

 which was usually recumbent, as 

 in Egypt, but winged, as in Assyria. 



Of the many thousands of in- 

 scriptions collected, few are of 

 historical value. The earliest has 

 been mentioned ; another, from 

 Sinjerli, preceded the fall of 

 Nineveh. All others, including the 

 famous Yehawmelek stela from 

 Byblos, are subsequent to the 

 Persian conquest. Phoenician sea- 

 craft is illustrated on Assyrian 

 wall-reliefs and in Egyptian tomb- 

 paintings. Nothing remains to 

 mark the more distant adventures, 

 except perhaps some Sumatra in- 

 scriptions attributed to them, and 

 dated to 450 B.C. See History of 

 Phoenicia, G. Rawlinson, 1889 ; 

 Ancient History of the Near East, 

 H. R. Hall, 5th ed. 1920. 



E. G. Harmer 



