III.

A Nation of Traders

Under their own rule, the Phoenicians became the greatest traders and sailors of the ancient world. The fleets of the coastal cities travelled throughout the Mediterranean and penetrated as far as the Atlantic Ocean, while other nations competed to employ Phoenician ships and crews in their fleets. The city-kingdoms founded many trading colonies, notably Utica and Carthage in north Africa, on the islands of Rhodes and Cyprus in the Mediterranean Sea, and Tarshish in southern Spain. In the 8th century bc the Phoenician cities were conquered by Assyria. When Assyria fell in the late 7th century bc, Phoenicia, except for Tyre, which succeeded in maintaining its independence until about 538 bc, was incorporated into the Chaldean Empire of Nebuchadnezzar II and, in 539 bc, became part of the Persian Empire. Under Persian rule Sidon became the leading city of Phoenicia.

When Alexander the Great invaded Asia Minor and defeated Persia in 333 bc, Sidon, Arwad, and Byblos capitulated to his forces. Tyre, however, refused to submit, and Alexander besieged the city for seven months before it fell in 332 bc. After this defeat the Phoenicians gradually lost their separate identity as they were absorbed into the kingdom of the Seleucids. The cities were gradually Hellenized, and, in 64 bc, even the name of Phoenicia disappeared, when the territory became part of the Roman province of Syria.