Ancient name for a narrow strip of territory on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Phoenicia was not a unified state but a group of city-kingdoms, one of which usually dominated the others. The Phoenicians, a Semitic-speaking people, founded their first settlements on the Mediterranean coast c. 2500 BC, becoming the greatest traders and sailors of the ancient world. Later they were absorbed into the Persian Empire (539 BC); in 64 BC the area became part of the Roman province of Syria.