p Phoenicia was situated in a narrow strip of land along the coast of Syria inhabited by numerous western Semitic tribes. The common name applied to them all was Phoenicians, a name given them by the Greeks. Phoenicia was never a single united kingdom, but was made up of a collection of independent townships each with its adjacent agricultural land. The largest of these towns were Ugarit, Byblus, Tyre and Sidon.

p From approximately 1500 B.C. onwards the Phoenician towns were under Egyptian or Hittite rule, until in the twelfth century B.C. they regained their independence and Tyre began to occupy a predominant position among them. King Hiram I of Tyre (969-936) undertook large-scale military campaigns, leading an expedition to Cyprus and several to Africa. During that period Tyre extended her hegemony over the towns of Byblus and Sidon, and became an important political and trade centre. On its advantageous island site Tyre was for a long time considered an impregnable fortress. However, the Phoenicians’ independence was short-lived, for they were conquered by Assyria at the end of the eighth century B.C.

p Grain and grapes were the main crops in Phoenicia. Small use was made of slave labour in agriculture (indeed slavery was never developed on a wide scale) and the main labour force was made up of peasants living in communes. The townspeople were engaged mainly in crafts and trade. Even in ancient times the Phoenicians were famed as traders and skilled seamen. The Phoenicians exported their own wine, timber and the work of their craftsmen, but the merchants did not limit themselves to these items: they also acted as middlemen, buying goods from other countries and reselling them. The Phoenicians conducted trade with Egypt, Assyria, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor and so on.

p For trade purposes Phoenician seamen undertook long voyages to the countries of the Aegean and Mediterranean and they were the first to reach by sea the "pillars of Hercules”, or Gibraltar. Wherever it was possible to be assured of a more or less regular supply of valuable goods the Phoenicians founded settlements or colonies. Colonies of this type were set up on various islands in the Aegean (such as Thasos and Rhodes) and in the Mediterranean (such as Cyprus, Malta and Sicily). On the north coast of Africa the Phoenicians founded the town of Carthage which was 35 36 later to develop into an important state and set up a large number of colonies of its own.

The most important achievement of Phoenician culture was the development and diffusion of an alphabet (dating from the ’thirteenth century B.C.) which was doubtlessly a direct result of the rapid development of trade and the growing need for the frequent and rapid compilation of commercial documents. On the basis of Egyptian hieroglyphs and the Babylonian cuneiform script the Phoenicians produced an alphabet consisting of 22 letters. This alphabet was later to serve as a model for the Greek alphabet and hence many subsequent forms of writing.