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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenicia

Coordinates: 34°07′25″N 35°39′04″E

Phoenicia
Φοινίκη
Phoiníkē  (Greek)
2500 BC–64  BC
Map of the Phoenicia region in green.
Map of the Phoenicia region in green.

CapitalNone; dominant cities were Byblos (2500–1000 BC) and Tyre (900–550 BC)
Common languagesPhoenician, Punic
Religion Canaanite religion
Demonym(s)Phoenician
GovernmentCity-states ruled by kings, with varying degrees of oligarchic or plutocratic elements; oligarchic republic in Carthage after c. 480 BC
Well-known kings of Phoenician cities 

• c. 1800 BC (oldest attested king of Lebanon proper)
Abishemu I
• 969 – 936 BC
Hiram I
• 820 – 774 BC
Pygmalion of Tyre
Historical eraClassical antiquity

• Established
2500 BC
• Tyre becomes dominant city-state under the reign of Hiram I
969 BC
• Carthage founded (in Roman accounts by Dido)
814 BC
• Pompey conquers Phoenicia and rest of Seleucid Empire
64  BC
Preceded by Succeeded by
Canaanites
Hittite Empire
Egyptian Empire
Syria (Roman province)

Phoenicia (/fəˈnɪʃə, -ˈn-/) was an ancient thalassocratic (a state with primarily maritime realms) civilization originating in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily located in modern Lebanon. It was concentrated along the coast of Lebanon and included some coastal areas of modern Syria and Palestine, reaching as far north as Arwad, and as far south as Acre and possibly Gaza. At its height between 1100 and 200 BC, Phoenician civilization spanned the Mediterranean from Cyprus to the Iberian Peninsula.

The Phoenicians were a Semitic-speaking people of somewhat unknown origin who emerged in the Levant around 3000 BC. The term Phoenicia is an ancient Greek exonym that most likely described one of their most famous exports, a dye also known as Tyrian purple; it did not correspond precisely to a cohesive culture or society as it would have been understood natively. It is debated whether Phoenicians were actually distinct from the broader group of Semitic-speaking peoples known as Canaanites. Historian Robert Drews believes the term "Canaanites" corresponds to the ethnic group referred to as "Phoenicians" by the ancient Greeks.

The Phoenicians came to prominence in the mid 12th century BC, following the decline of most influential cultures in the Late Bronze Age collapse. They were renowned among contemporaries as skilled traders and mariners, becoming the dominant commercial power for much of classical antiquity. The Phoenicians developed an expansive maritime trade network that lasted over a millennium, helping facilitate the exchange of cultures, ideas, and knowledge between major cradles of civilization such as Greece, Egypt, and Mesopotamia. After its zenith in the ninth century BC, Phoenician civilization in the eastern Mediterranean slowly declined in the face of foreign influence and conquest; its presence endured in the central and western Mediterranean until the mid-second century BC.

The Phoenicians were organized in city-states, similar to those of ancient Greece, of which the most notable were Tyre, Sidon, and Byblos. Each city-state was politically independent, and there is no evidence the Phoenicians viewed themselves as a single nationality. The Phoenicians established colonies and trading posts across the Mediterranean; Carthage, a settlement in northwest Africa, became a major civilization in its own right in the seventh century BC. Phoenician society and cultural life centered on commerce and seafaring; while most city-states were governed by some form of kingship, merchant families likely exercised influence through oligarchies.

The Phoenicians were long considered a lost civilization due to the lack of indigenous written records, and only since the mid-20th century have historians and archaeologists been able to reveal a complex and influential civilization. Their best known legacy is the world's oldest verified alphabet, which was transmitted across the Mediterranean and used to develop the Hebrew script, Arabic script, and Greek alphabet and in turn the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets. The Phoenicians are also credited with innovations in shipbuilding, navigation, industry, agriculture, and government. Their international trade network is believed to have fostered the economic, political, and cultural foundations of Classical Western civilization.

Etymology