PHCENICIA, PHCENICIANS

which, if true, would carry the founding of the temple at Tyre back to B.C. 2730.

The civilization of the Phoenicians was a city civiliza-tion, and each city had its petty king. The history is therefore the record of a number of petty dynasties, often jealous of one another, and never powerful enough to resist a strong invader from without. Hemmed in between the mountains and the sea, they alone of the early Semites developed navigation, and became the merchantmen and the carriers of the ancient world. Their ships and shipping were important as early as B.C. 1400 (cf. KIB V. 150", 152«8). Herodotus tells (Iv. 42) how Necho of Egypt, a contemporary of Jeremiah, employed Phesnicians to circumnavigate Africa, while Strabo (xvi. ii. 23) again testifies to their excellence in seamanship. According to Homer, they had intercourse with Greeks in the time of the Trojan war (/;. vi. 290). Traces of their influence are found in Greece (cf .Barton, Semit. Or. 316 ff.), and their maritime skill led them later to found colonies, especially in Sicily, Carthage, and Cyprus.

For some reason Sidon so excelled the other cities in the eyes of Israelites and Greeks, that in the OT and Homer the Phcenicians are frequently called ' Sidonians,' even when, as in the case of Ahab's marriage, Tyrians are reaUy referred to Ccf. Jg 10«- '^ igv, i K 6« ll'- ss 1631, 2 K 23"; Hom. II. vi. 290, Od. iv. 618, xv. 118). The reason for this is obscure.

Phoenicia first appears in written history in the record of the Asiatic campaigns of Thothmes iii. of Egypt. In his earlier campaigns that king conquered the region between the Lebanon ranges. In his 7th expedition (b.c. 1471) he came out to the coast and conquered Arvad, the most northerly of the important Phoenician cities (cf. Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt, ii. 196). There are reasons for supposing that Tyre had previously been added to his empire (Breasted Hist, of Egypt, 298). Probably the same is true of the rest of Phoenicia, for in the el-Amarna letters all the Phoenician cities were included in the Egyptian empire of Amenophis in. and Amenophis iv. These letters show that under Amenophis iv. Rib-Adda was vassal king of Gebal, Ammunira of Biruta, Zimrida of Sidon, and Abimilki of Tyre. These kings were in constant feud with one another, with the people of Arvad, and with the Amorites beyond the Lebanon. They are constantly accusing one another (cf. Nos. 33 fl., 128-130, and 147-156). Under the XlXth dynasty Phoenicia was again invaded. Seti i. held Acco and Tyre (Breasted, Rec-ords, iii. 47), while Eameses u. pushed northward to Biruta (.ib. iii. 123). In the reign of his successor Merenptah the cities from the Lebanon to Ashbelon revolted. Phoenicia was probably included in the revolt, for in the poem written to celebrate the re- subjugation of these lands, we read: 'Plundered is Canaan with every evil' (Breasted, Records, iii. 264, Hist. 470). In the XXth dynasty Rameses in. (b.c. 1198-1167) still held the country from Arvad and southward (Breasted, Records, iv. 34, 37). It is prob-ably because of this long Egyptian vassalage that Gn 10" traces the descent of Sidon from Ham. By the end of the dynasty Phoenicia was again free, for in the fifth year of Rameses xii. (b.c. 1113) a certain Wenamon was despatched to Phoenicia for cedar from the Lebanon forests; and Dor, Tyre, and Gebal, the towns at which he touched, were not only independent but had small respect for a representative of Pharaoh (Breasted, ib. iv. 274 ff.). The king of Gebal was at this time Zakar-Bel. Probably the dynasty of Tyre traced to Josephus (c. Apion. i. 18) was founded at the time of this emancipation from Egypt, and the era to which he refers (Ant. vni. iii. 1) then began.

A century later than the time of Wenamon, Hiram king of Tyre was an ally of David, and furnished cedar to build him a place (2 S 6"). Later he was the ally of Solomon, and aided him in the construction of the

726

PHCENICIA, PHCENICIANS

Temple (1 K 5' 7" 9"- '»). In the following century king Ahab of Israel married Jezebel, daughter of Eth-baal, king of Tyre. Thus Phoenician influence found its way into Israel.

Shortly before the time of Ahab, the Assyrian king Ashur-nasir-pal (b.c. 884-860) had made a raid to the Mediterranean coast and exacted tribute from Tyre, Sidon, and Gebal (.KIB i. 109). His successor, Shalmaneser ii., records tribute from the same cities in his 21st year I.KIB i. 143). Later he took it also from Arvad (ib. 173). Adad-nirari (b.c. 812-783) counted Tyre and Sidon among his subjects (.ib. 191). In the interval of Assyrian weakness which followed, Phoenicia became once more independent, and when the powerful Tiglath-pileser in. (B.C. 745-727) again invaded the West, Tyre joined a coalition against him, but in the end 'Tyre and Gebal and Arvad paid tribute (KIB ii. 21, 23, 31). Sidon is not mentioned. Probably it was subject to Tyre. Tyre at this period ruled over a part of Cyprus. Menander relates (Jos. Ant. ix. xiv. 2) that Shalmaneser iv. (727-722) overran Phoenicia and un-successfully besieged Tyre for five years. Perhaps the issue of the siege came in the reign of Sargon, for the statue of that king in Cyprus shows that this dependency of Tyre was ruled by him. Sennacherib (705-681) records the submission of Sidon, Sarepta, Achzib, and Acco (KIB ii. 91). Tyre he did not disturb. Esar-haddon had to reduce Sidon by a siege, and changed its name to ' Esarhaddonsburg ' (Kar-Assurakhiddina), but he failed to reduce Tyre (KIB ii. 125 ff., 149; Rogers, Hist. Bab. and Assyr. ii. 226 if.). Ashurbanipal (668-626) claims to have reduced Tyre and Arvad. At any rate he made an alliance with the king of Tyre (KIB ii. 169, 171). Before the end of his reign, how-ever, Phoenicia was again independent, Assyria having become weak. We next hear that king Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon (604^562) unsuccessfully besieged Tyre for many years (Ezk 26"!- 29'™-).

In the Persian period (how Phoenicia became subject to Persia our sources do not teU) Sidon again became the leading city. Tyre taking a second place. An inscription of Yahaw-melech, king of Gebal, probably belongs to this period (CIS 1. 1).

Sidon furnished the best ships for the fleet of Xerxes, Tyre the next best (Diod. Sic. xvi. xlvi.; Herod, vii. 44, 96, 98, viii. 67). Straton (Abd-Ashtart?) of Sidon in the next century effected Greek civilization (jElian, Yar. Hist. vii. 2; Athenieus, 531). About 350 his successor Tennes (Tabnith 7) joined m an unsuccess-ful revolt against Persia, and Sidon was again besieged (Diod. Sic. XVI. xlii.).

After the battle of Issus (b.c. 333), all the Phoenician cities except Tyre opened their gates to Alexander the Great. Tyre resisted and again stood a siege of seven months (Diod. Sic. xvii. xli. fl.). During the next century, under the Ptolemys, a native dynasty flourished at Sidon, from which a number of inscriptions survive (cf. G. A. Cooke, North Sem. Inscr. 26 ft.; JAOS xxiii. 156 ff.). The kings were Eshmunazar i., Tabnith, Bod-Ashtart, and Eshmunazar ii. Bod-Ashtart built a temple near Sidon, which has recently been excavated.

In the wars of the later Ptolemys and Seleucids the Phoenicians played an important part. Phoenicia belonged to the Seleucids after b.c. 197. In b.c. 65 it passed under Roman rule. The reference in Mk 7™ to a woman who was a ' Syrophoenician ' by race shows that the Evangelist recognized that the old stock survived. In b.c. 14 Augustus made Biruta a Roman colony. Claudius (a.d. 41-54) made Acco, then called Ptolemais (cf. Ac 21'), a Roman colony. Septimius Severus (a.d. 193-211) performed a similar service for Tyre, and Elagabalus (218-222) for Sidon. Gradually the old race was merged with various con-querors.

In civilization the Phoenicians were for the most part borrowers from Babylonia and Egypt. What they