24 chapters
17 hour read
Selected Chapters
24 chapters
Camden Professor of Ancient History in the University of Oxford Canon of Canterbury Corresponding Member of the Royal Academy of Turin
Camden Professor of Ancient History in the University of Oxford Canon of Canterbury Corresponding Member of the Royal Academy of Turin
PREFACE HISTORY OF PHOENICIA CHAPTER I—THE LAND CHAPTER II—CLIMATE AND PRODUCTIONS CHAPTER III—THE PEOPLE—ORIGIN AND CHARACTERISTICS CHAPTER IV—THE CITIES CHAPTER V—THE COLONIES CHAPTER VI—ARCHITECTURE CHAPTER VII—ÆSTHETIC ART CHAPTER VIII—INDUSTRIAL ART AND MANUFACTURES CHAPTER IX—SHIPS, NAVIGATION, AND COMMERCE CHAPTER X—MINING CHAPTER XI—RELIGION CHAPTER XII—DRESS, ORNAMENTS, AND SOCIAL HABITS CHAPTER XIII—PHOENICIAN WRITING, LANGUAGE, AND LITERATURE CHAPTER XIV—POLITICAL HISTORY 1. Phoenicia
3 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
PREFACE
PREFACE
Histories of Phoenicia or of the Phoenicians were written towards the middle of the present century by Movers and Kenrick. The elaborate work of the former writer 01 collected into five moderate-sized volumes all the notices that classical antiquity had preserved of the Religion, History, Commerce, Art, &c., of this celebrated and interesting nation. Kenrick, making a free use of the stores of knowledge thus accumulated, added to them much information derived from modern research, and wa
5 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER I—THE LAND
CHAPTER I—THE LAND
Phoenicé, or Phoenicia, was the name originally given by the Greeks—and afterwards adopted from them by the Romans—to the coast region of the Mediterranean, where it faces the west between the thirty-second and the thirty-sixth parallels. Here, it would seem, in their early voyagings, the Pre-Homeric Greeks first came upon a land where the palm-tree was not only indigenous, but formed a leading and striking characteristic, everywhere along the low sandy shore lifting its tuft of feathery leaves
54 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER II—CLIMATE AND PRODUCTIONS
CHAPTER II—CLIMATE AND PRODUCTIONS
The long extent of the Phoenician coast, and the great difference in the elevation of its various parts, give it a great diversity of climate. Northern Phoenicia is many degrees colder than southern; and the difference is still more considerable between the coast tracts and the more elevated portions of the mountain regions. The greatest heat is experienced in the plain of Sharon, 21 which is at once the most southern portion of the country, and the part most remote from any hills of sufficient
32 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER III—THE PEOPLE—ORIGIN AND CHARACTERISTICS
CHAPTER III—THE PEOPLE—ORIGIN AND CHARACTERISTICS
The Phoenician people are generally admitted to have belonged to the group of nations known as Semitic. This group, somewhat irrelevantly named, since the descent of several of them from Shem is purely problematic, comprises the Assyrians, the later Babylonians, the Aramæans or Syrians, the Arabians, the Moabites, the Phoenicians, and the Hebrews. A single and very marked type of language belongs to the entire group, and a character of homogeneity may, with certain distinctions, be observed amon
27 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER IV—THE CITIES
CHAPTER IV—THE CITIES
Phoenicia, like Greece, was a country where the cities held a position of extreme importance. The nation was not a centralised one, with a single recognised capital, like Judæa, or Samaria, or Syria, or Assyria, or Babylonia. It was, like Greece, a congeries of homogeneous tribes, who had never been amalgamated into a single political entity, and who clung fondly to the idea of separate independence. Tyre and Sidon are often spoken of as if they were metropolitical cities; but it may be doubted
44 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER V—THE COLONIES
CHAPTER V—THE COLONIES
The narrowness of the territory which the Phoenicians occupied the military strength of their neighbours towards the north and towards the south, and their own preference of maritime over agricultural pursuits, combined to force them, as they began to increase and multiply, to find a vent for their superfluous population in colonies. The military strength of Philistia and Egypt barred them out from expansion upon the south; the wild savagery of the mountain races in Casius, northern Bargylus, an
2 hour read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER VI—ARCHITECTURE
CHAPTER VI—ARCHITECTURE
The architecture of the Phoenicians began with the fashioning of the native rock—so abundant in all parts of the country where they had settled themselves—into dwellings, temples, and tombs. The calcareous limestone, which is the chief geological formation along the Syrian coast, is worked with great ease; and it contains numerous fissures and caverns, 61 which a very moderate amount of labour and skill is capable of converting into fairly comfortable dwelling-places. It is probable that the fir
2 hour read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER VII—ÆSTHETIC ART
CHAPTER VII—ÆSTHETIC ART
Phoenician æsthetic art embraced sculpture, metal-casting, intaglio, and painting to a small extent. Situated as the Phoenicians were, in the immediate neighbourhood of nations which had practised from a remote antiquity the imitation of natural forms, and brought into contact by their commercial transactions with others, with whom art of every kind was in the highest esteem—adroit moreover with their hands, clever, active, and above all else practical—it was scarcely possible that they should n
2 hour read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER VIII—INDUSTRIAL ART AND MANUFACTURES
CHAPTER VIII—INDUSTRIAL ART AND MANUFACTURES
Phoenicia was celebrated from a remote antiquity for the manufacture of textile fabrics. The materials which she employed for them were wool, linen yarn, perhaps cotton, and, in the later period of her commercial prosperity, silk. The “white wool” of Syria was supplied to her in abundance by the merchants of Damascus, 81 and wool of lambs, rams, and goats seems also to have been furnished by the more distant parts of Arabia. 82 Linen yarn may have been imported from Egypt, where it was largely m
45 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER IX—SHIPS, NAVIGATION, AND COMMERCE
CHAPTER IX—SHIPS, NAVIGATION, AND COMMERCE
The first attempts of the Phoenicians to navigate the sea which washed their coast were probably as clumsy and rude as those of other primitive nations. They are said to have voyaged from island to island, in their original abodes within the Persian Gulf, by means of rafts. 91 When they reached the shores of the Mediterranean, it can scarcely have been long ere they constructed boats for fishing and coasting purposes, though no doubt such boats were of a very rude construction. Probably, like ot
2 hour read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER X—MINING
CHAPTER X—MINING
The most precious and useful of the metals lie, in many places, so near the earth’s surface that, in the earliest times, mining is unneeded and therefore unpractised. We are told that in Spain silver was first discovered in consequence of a great fire, which consumed all the forests wherewith the mountains were clothed, and lasted many days; at the end of which time the surface of the soil was found to be intersected by streams of silver from the melting of the superficial silver ore through the
18 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XI—RELIGION
CHAPTER XI—RELIGION
There can be no doubt that the Phoenicians were a people in whose minds religion and religious ideas occupied a very prominent place. Religiousness has been said to be one of the leading characteristics of the Semitic race; 0111 and it is certainly remarkable that with that race originated the three principal religions, two of which are the only progressive religions, of the modern world. Judaism, Christianity, and Mohammedanism all arose in Western Asia within a restricted area, and from nation
2 hour read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XII—DRESS, ORNAMENTS, AND SOCIAL HABITS
CHAPTER XII—DRESS, ORNAMENTS, AND SOCIAL HABITS
The dress of the Phoenician men, especially of those belonging to the lower orders, consisted, for the most part, of a single close-fitting tunic, which reached from the waist to a little above the knee. 0121 The material was probably either linen or cotton, and the simple garment was perfectly plain and unornamented, like the common shenti of the Egyptians. On the head was generally worn a cap of one kind or another, sometimes round, more often conical, occasionally shaped like a helmet. The co
27 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XIII—PHOENICIAN WRITING, LANGUAGE, AND LITERATURE
CHAPTER XIII—PHOENICIAN WRITING, LANGUAGE, AND LITERATURE
The Phoenician alphabet, like the Hebrew, consisted of twenty-two characters, which had, it is probable, the same names with the Hebrew letters, 0131 and were nearly identical in form with the letters used anciently by the entire Hebrew race. The most ancient inscription in the character which has come down to us is probably that of Mesha, 0132 the Moabite king, which belongs to the ninth century before our era. The next in antiquity, which is of any considerable length, is that discovered recen
57 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
1. Phoenicia, before the establishment of the hegemony of Tyre.
1. Phoenicia, before the establishment of the hegemony of Tyre.
When the Phoenician immigrants, in scattered bands, and at longer or shorter intervals, arrived upon the Syrian coast, and finding it empty occupied it, or wrested it from its earlier possessors, there was a decided absence from among them of any single governing or controlling authority; a marked tendency to assert and maintain separate rule and jurisdiction. Sidon, the Arkite, the Arvadite, the Zemarite, are separately enumerated in the book of Genesis; 0141 and the Hebrews have not even any o
23 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
2. Phoenicia under the hegemony of Tyre (B.C. 1252-877)
2. Phoenicia under the hegemony of Tyre (B.C. 1252-877)
Tyre was noted as a “strong city” as early as the time of Joshua, 1440 and was probably inferior only to Sidon, or to Sidon and Aradus, during the period of Sidonian ascendancy. It is mentioned in the “Travels of a Mohar” (about B.C. 1350) as “a port, richer in fish than in sands." 1441 The tradition was, that it acquired its predominance and pre-eminence from the accession of the Sidonian population, which fled thither by sea, when no longer able to resist the forces of Ascalon. 1442 We do not
42 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
3. Phoenicia during the period of its subjection to Assyria (B.C.
3. Phoenicia during the period of its subjection to Assyria (B.C.
877-635) The first contact of Phoenicia with Assyria took place, as above observed, in the reign of Asshur-nazir-pal, about the year B.C. 877. The principal cities, on the approach of the great conquering monarch, with his multitudinous array of chariots, his clouds of horse, and his innumerable host of foot soldiers, made haste to submit themselves, sought to propitiate the invader by rich gifts, and accepted what they hoped might prove a nominal subjection. Arvad, which, as the most northern,
37 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
4. Phoenicia during its struggles with Babylon and Egypt (about B.C.
4. Phoenicia during its struggles with Babylon and Egypt (about B.C.
635-527) It is impossible to fix the year in which Phoenicia became independent of Assyria. The last trace of Assyrian interference, in the way of compulsion, with any of the towns belongs to B.C. 645, when she severely punished Hosah and Accho. The latest sign of her continued domination is found in B.C. 636, when the Assyrian governor of a Phoenician town, Zimirra, appears in the list of Eponyms. 14180 It must have been very soon after this that the empire became involved in those troubles and
31 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
5. Phoenicia under the Persians (B.C. 528-333)
5. Phoenicia under the Persians (B.C. 528-333)
The conquest of Babylon by Cyrus gave him, according to Oriental notions generally, a claim to succeed to the inheritance of the entire Babylonian empire; but the claim would remain dormant until it was enforced. The straggling character of the territory, which was shaped like a Greek {L}, ascending from Babylon along the course of the Euphrates to the Armenian mountains, and then descending along the line of the Mediterranean coast as far as Gaza or Raphia, rendered the enforcement of the claim
56 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
6. Phoenicia in the time of Alexander the Great (B.C. 333-323)
6. Phoenicia in the time of Alexander the Great (B.C. 333-323)
The invasion of Asia by Alexander the Great, though it found the Persians unready, was by no means of the nature of a surprise. The design had been openly proclaimed by Philip in the year B.C. 338, when he forced the Grecian States to appoint him generalissimo of their armies, which he promised to lead to the conquest of the East. 14350 Darius Codomannus had thus ample warning of what he had to expect, and abundant opportunity to make the fullest preparations for defence. During the years B.C. 3
43 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
7. Phoenicia under the Greeks (B.C. 323-65)
7. Phoenicia under the Greeks (B.C. 323-65)
Phoenicia continued faithful to Alexander during the remainder of his career. Phoenician vessels were sent across the Ægean to the coast of the Peloponnese to maintain the Macedonian interest in that quarter. 14430 Large numbers of the mercantile class accompanied the march of his army for the purposes of traffic. A portion of these, when Alexander reached the Hydaspes and determined to sail down the course of the Indus to the sea, were drafted into the vessels which he caused to be built, 14431
17 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
8. Phoenicia under the Romans (B.C. 65-A.D. 650)
8. Phoenicia under the Romans (B.C. 65-A.D. 650)
The kingdom of the Seleucidæ came to an end through its own internal weakness and corruption. In B.C. 83 their subjects, whether native Asiatics or Syro-Macedonians, were so weary of the perpetual series of revolts, civil wars, and assassinations that they invited Tigranes, the king of the neighbouring Armenia, to step in and undertake the government of the country. 14464 Tigranes ruled from B.C. 83 till B.C. 69, when he was attacked by the Romans, to whom he had given just cause of offence by h
28 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
PREFACE
PREFACE
01 ( return ) [ Die Phönizier, und das phönizische Alterthum , by F. C. Movers, in five volumes, Berlin, 1841-1856.] 02 ( return ) [ History and Antiquities of Phoenicia , by John Kenrick, London, 1855.] 03 ( return ) [ Histoire de l’Art dans l’Antiquité , par MM. Perrot et Chipiez, Paris, 1881-7, 4 vols.] 04 ( return ) [ Will of William Camden, Clarencieux King-of-Arms, founder of the “Camden Professorship,” 1662.] I—THE LAND 11 ( return ) [ See Eckhel, Doctr. Num. Vet. p. 441.] 12 ( return ) [
40 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter