Phoenicia was an ancient civilization composed of independent city-states located along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea stretching through what is now Syria, Lebanon and northern Israel. The Phoenicians were a great maritime people, known for their mighty ships adorned with horses' heads in honor of their god of the sea, Yamm, the brother of Mot, the god of death.
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Definition
Timeline
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c. 4000 BCEFounding of the city of Sidon.
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c. 4000 BCE - c. 3000 BCETrade contact between Byblos and Egypt.
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c. 2900 BCE - c. 2300 BCEFirst settlement of Baalbek.
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c. 2750 BCEThe city of Tyre is founded.
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c. 1250 BCE - c. 1150 BCEDestruction of many Canaanite towns hints at a possible invasion of the Israelites into Canaan.
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c. 1200 BCE - c. 800 BCEFirst wave of Phoenician colonization where largely trading-posts are founded throughout the Mediterranean.
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c. 1200 BCESea Peoples invade the Levant.
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1115 BCE - 1076 BCEReign of Tiglath-Pileser I of Assyria who conquers Phoenicia and revitalizes the empire.
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c. 1110 BCETraditional founding date for the Phoenician colony of Gades (Cadiz).
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c. 1101 BCETraditional founding date for the Phoenician colony of Utica by Sidon (or Tyre).
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1100 BCEPhoenician alphabet.
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c. 1000 BCEHeight of Tyre's power.
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c. 1000 BCEAhiram becomes king of Sidon.
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c. 1000 BCEDeath of Ahiram (or Ahirom) of Byblos, whose sarcophagus bears the oldest inscription of the Phoenician alphabet.
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969 BCE - 936 BCEHiram I reigns as king of Tyre.
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820 BCE - 774 BCEPygmalion rules as king of Tyre.
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c. 814 BCETraditional founding date for the Phoenician colony of Carthage by Tyre.
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c. 800 BCE - 600 BCESecond stage of Phoenician colonization where trading-posts become full colonies throughout the Mediterranean.
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c. 750 BCEPhoenicians found the colony of Motya on Sicily.
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c. 700 BCECorinthians adopt the trireme from the Phoenicians.
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351 BCEArtaxerxes III sacks Sidon.
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332 BCEAlexander the Great sacks Sidon.
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332 BCEAlexander the Great sacks Baalbek and renames it Heliopolis.
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Jan 332 BCE - Jul 332 BCEAlexander the Great besieges and conquers Tyre.
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c. 301 BCE - c. 195 BCETyre, as all other Phoenician cities, belongs to the Ptolemies, rulers of hellenistic Egypt.
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274 BCE - 271 BCEThe first Syrian war, marking the beginning of the contest between the Ptolemies and the Seleucids for Phoenicia and Coele-Syria.
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c. 195 BCEAfter the battle at Panion, the Seleucids finally take the rule of Phoenicia from the Ptolemies. Tyre and the other Phoenician cities will remain in the Seleucid power until the Roman conquest of Syria.
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64 BCETyre becomes a Roman colony.
