P H CE N I e E. 
282 
Phcenice. For an account of the principal towns of Phoe- 
nice, fee their refpeitive names. In the midland Phce¬ 
nice, Ptolemy reckons the following towns; viz. Area, 
Palsebyblus, Gabala, and Caefarea Panise. This province 
was confiderably extended in the times of Chriftianity ; 
when, being confidered as a province of Syria, it included 
not only Damafcus, but Palmyra alfo. 
The foil of this country is good, and produces many 
articles both of food and clothing; the air is falubrious, 
and the climate agreeable. The fea on this coaft for¬ 
merly produced a quantity of fuch fifh as yielded great 
profit to Tyre in particular; fuch was the Murex, with 
which was dyed the choiceft purple ; and on the fhore was 
a fand with which the firft and beft glafs was made, as a 
ftaple manufacture of this country. Although this coun¬ 
try has been long defolate, it exhibits fome remains of its 
ancientfplendour, more efpecially at Tyre,Sidon, Byblos, 
Sec. which fee refpeftively. 
The Phoenicians were, without doubt, defeendants of the 
Canaanites ; though, in procefs of time, their blood was 
intermixed with that of foreigners, from the natural 
courfe of their commerce with other countries. Many 
ftrange families muft have fettled among them, who Could 
confequently have no claim to this remote origin, how 
much l'oever they have been called Phoenicians, and rec¬ 
koned of the fame defeent with the ancient proprietors. 
Bochart indeed infinuates (Phaleg. lib. iv. cap. 34.) that 
the Canaanites wereafhamed of their name, on account of 
the malediction denounced on their progenitor, and that 
they were terrified by the wars, which had been with 
equal vigour and fuccefs waged againft them by the 
Ilraelites, becaufe they were Canaanites ; and that, there¬ 
fore, to avoid the ignominy of the one and the danger of 
the other, they abjured their old name, and changed it for 
Phoenicians, Syrians, Syro-Phcenicians, and Aflyrians. 
Heidegger alfo conjectures, that they were afhamed of 
their anceftor Canaan. As to the etymology of their 
name, learned writers have fuggefted a variety of conjec¬ 
tures. The mythological hiftorians have traced it to a 
pretended Phcenix, fon of Agenor, or to a Phcenix, faid 
to be the fon of Neptune and Libya. Others have derived 
it from <pom§, or the palm-tree, with which Phcenice is 
faid to have abounded. The learned Bochart feems to 
have approached nearer to truth in his conjecture. Ac¬ 
cording to him, thefe people had, in ancient times, been 
called, the Children of Anak, or Beni-Anak: the beth 
being foftened, Beni-Anak was changed into Plienah, in 
the plural Phenakim, from which the Greeks formed Phce- 
nices. We learn from Scripture, that the (pies fent by 
Mofes found in Hebron and its environs a people called 
Anakim or Enakim ; and that thefe Canaanites were dif- 
tinguiflied for their ftature and ftrength : of courfe, the 
other Canaanites who claimed the honour of defeent from 
them were alfo denominated Anakims. M. l’Abbe Mig- 
not, in his elaborate difeuflion of this fubjeCt, (Mem. 
Acad. Belles Lettres, tom. xxxiv. &c.) thinks that it is 
not neceflary to recur to the word, “Beni;” becaufe the 
Egyptians always prefix the article phe to words, fo that, 
inltead of Enakim, they would read Penahimor P/iotiacim ; 
and the Greeks, becoming acquainted in their firft mari¬ 
time expeditions on the coaft of the country with this 
word, formed from it and the Latins Phcenices. 
It has been prefumed by this ingenious writer, who has 
taken great pains in tracing the origin of the Phoenicians, 
that a new' colony of Canaanites arrived in this country, 
which drove the ancient inhabitants towards the north; 
and in proof of this opinion he refers to Gen. xii. and 
xiii. Thefe new Canaanites he fuppofes to have been the 
Orientals whom authors have diftinguifhed by the appel¬ 
lation of “ Egyptian Shepherds,” and who, after having 
been driven from the country which they had once pof- 
fefied, returned again to Paleftine. Accordingly he iup- 
pofes thefe “ Shepherds,” of whom we final 1 have occa- 
fion to fpeak in another article, were the progenitors of 
the Phoenicians. The kings of the Thebaid, and other 
princes of Egypt, formed a league againft them, and car» 
ried on a war, which was long and cruel; till at laft the 
king Mufphar Muthofis obliged them to withdraw into a 
canton which contained 10,000 arourm, or Egyptian acres. 
The Shepherds fortified this place, and encompafled it 
with walls, for the fecurity of their poffelfions. Thum- 
mofis, or Thetmofis, at the head of 480,000 men, befieged 
this place; but, defpairing of fuccefs, he treated with the 
befieged, and granted them permiflion to retire, with their 
whole property, to any place they might choofe, without 
being purfued or difquieted in their march. The Shep¬ 
herds accordingly quitted Egypt, and, purfuing their 
route through the defert, arrived in Syria, and fettled in 
the country which was afterwards called Judea. This 
departure of the Shepherds from Egypt is faid to have 
taken place before the arrival of Jofeph in that country ; 
i. e. in the year 1728 B. C. This fragment of ancient 
hiftory throws great light, according to the abbe Mignot, 
on the Egyptian allegories. The fynchronifm of the ar¬ 
rival of the Phoenicians in Egypt with the reign of Menes, 
leads us to imagine, that the whole fable of the war of 
Typhon againft Ofiris is an allegory, under which is veiled 
the hiftory of the war of the Phoenicians, or Canaanites, 
againft the Egyptians. Typhon was the brother of Ofi¬ 
ris; and he correfponds to the Canaanites, who were de¬ 
fended from Canaan, the brother of Mizraim, and who 
might be called the brethren of the Egyptians, according 
to eaftern ufage; but, although brethren, they were not 
born in Egypt, which the fable fufficiently indicates, by 
the different colour which it gives to Typhon, who was 
red. The Egyptians, compared with the Canaanites, were 
almoft black. According to the fable, the war between 
Typhon and Ofiris was long, and terminated by the re¬ 
treat of Typhon from Egypt, thus charafterifing the ex- 
pulfion of the Shepherds. Typhon retired to Abaris, 
which was called the City of Typhon : but he was obliged 
to leave it and abandon the whole country; and, as he 
never returned, he is thought to have been drowned in 
the overflow of the waters of the Sirbonite lake : but his 
death is fuppofed to have been allegorical; for, accordingto 
Plutarch, (De If. and Ofir.) he had two fons, Judaeus and 
Jeralymus; the meaning of which is, that he entered into 
Syria, and fettled in the country of Canaan, fince occu¬ 
pied by the Jews, and in which was the city of Jerufalem. 
According to the abbe Mignot, the commencement of 
the reign of Salatis, the firft Shepherd king, may be fixed 
to the year 2078 B. C. and their departure to the year 
1793 before the fame era. The Phoenician Shepherds re¬ 
entered the country of Canaan, from which, about three 
centuries before, they had departed for Egypt, and fettled 
towards the fonth ; and, according to Juftin (lib. xviii. c. 
3.) they eftablifhed themfelves in the vicinity of the lake 
of Affyria, i. e. the lake Afphaltites; but, multiplying 
there, they were under the neceftity of extending their 
borders, and taking pofleflion of the territory of the fea- 
coaft, which the firft inhabitants of the country had left 
vacant ; and fome of them fettled in the neighbourhood 
of the Jordan. Their arrival in Paleftine was the caufe 
which induced fome of the ancient inhabitants to remove 
towards the north. There they multiplied themfelves to 
fuch a degree, that the country, which in the time of Ja¬ 
cob was deftitute of inhabitants to cultivate the foil, was 
peopled with a race which terrified the fpies of Mofes by the 
magnitude of their cities, and by the number and power 
of thofe who inhabited them. 
The Philiftines alfo are faid to have come from Egypt; 
they were eftablifhed to the fouthof the Canaanites, hav¬ 
ing, in former ti'mes, inhabited Pelufium and its territory. 
The Caphtorim were alfo of the fame race ; and thefe 
people, together with the Canaanites, conftituted the na¬ 
tion, which, in procefs of time, bore the name of Phoe¬ 
nicians. (See Philistines.) Another French author, 
viz. M. de la Nauze, maintains (Mem. de Let. t. xxxiv. 
M. p. 175.) that the Phoenicians, who were alfo called 
Erythrseans, were defeended from Edom or Efau; and 
2 that 
