Phoenicia

Joshua J. Mark

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Definition

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.

More about: Phoenicia

Timeline

c. 4000 BCE
Founding of the city of Sidon.
c. 4000 BCE - c. 3000 BCE
Trade contact between Byblos and Egypt.
c. 2900 BCE - c. 2300 BCE
First settlement of Baalbek.
c. 2750 BCE
The city of Tyre is founded.
c. 1250 BCE - c. 1150 BCE
Destruction of many Canaanite towns hints at a possible invasion of the Israelites into Canaan.
c. 1200 BCE - c. 800 BCE
First wave of Phoenician colonization where largely trading-posts are founded throughout the Mediterranean.
c. 1200 BCE
Sea Peoples invade the Levant.
1115 BCE - 1076 BCE
Reign of Tiglath-Pileser I of Assyria who conquers Phoenicia and revitalizes the empire.
c. 1110 BCE
Traditional founding date for the Phoenician colony of Gades (Cadiz).
c. 1101 BCE
Traditional founding date for the Phoenician colony of Utica by Sidon (or Tyre).
1100 BCE
Phoenician alphabet.
c. 1000 BCE
Height of Tyre's power.
c. 1000 BCE
Ahiram becomes king of Sidon.
c. 1000 BCE
Death of Ahiram (or Ahirom) of Byblos, whose sarcophagus bears the oldest inscription of the Phoenician alphabet.
969 BCE - 936 BCE
Hiram I reigns as king of Tyre.
820 BCE - 774 BCE
Pygmalion rules as king of Tyre.
c. 814 BCE
Traditional founding date for the Phoenician colony of Carthage by Tyre.
c. 800 BCE - 600 BCE
Second stage of Phoenician colonization where trading-posts become full colonies throughout the Mediterranean.
c. 750 BCE
Phoenicians found the colony of Motya on Sicily.
c. 700 BCE
Corinthians adopt the trireme from the Phoenicians.
351 BCE
Artaxerxes III sacks Sidon.
332 BCE
Alexander the Great sacks Sidon.
332 BCE
Alexander the Great sacks Baalbek and renames it Heliopolis.
Jan 332 BCE - Jul 332 BCE
Alexander the Great besieges and conquers Tyre.
c. 301 BCE - c. 195 BCE
Tyre, as all other Phoenician cities, belongs to the Ptolemies, rulers of hellenistic Egypt.
274 BCE - 271 BCE
The first Syrian war, marking the beginning of the contest between the Ptolemies and the Seleucids for Phoenicia and Coele-Syria.
c. 195 BCE
After 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.
64 BCE
Tyre becomes a Roman colony.