They formed a string of colonies and city states that stretched across the Mediterranean to the Atlantic. The Phoenicians were initially based in what is now Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. and endured until the razing of Carthage in 146 B.C. They fit no clear or racial or physical profile and appear ro be a kind of mongrel race comprised of various groups that lived in the Middle East and the Mediterranean. The are associated with Lebanon but little is known of their origin. They spoke a Semitic language like Jews and Arabs. The Phoenicians are known as the creators of the first alphabet. The name Phoenician, used to describe these people in the first millennium B.C., is a Greek invention, from the word phoinix, possibly signifying the color purple-red and perhaps an allusion to their production of a highly prized purple dye.” What the Phoenicians actually called themselves is unknown, though it may have been the ancient term Canaanite. All were fiercely independent, rival cities and, unlike the neighboring inland states, the Phoenicians represented a confederation of maritime traders rather than a defined country. Their major cities were Tyre, Sidon, Byblos, and Arwad. Īccording to the Metropolitan Museum of Art: “The Phoenicians were a people who occupied the coast of the Levant (eastern Mediterranean). The Romans called the residents of Carthage: Carthaginians, Poeni or Punic. Carthage was a Phoenician colony that developed unto a power city state. Punic was another name for Phoenician or Carthaginian. The dominated the Mediterranean, acted as intermediaries between Mesopotamia and Egypt and came close to defeating the Romans. Originating in the coasts of present-day Lebanon and Israel, they developed an alphabet that was modified and adopted by much of the world and were expert sailors and traders. The Phoenicians established a great early civilization.
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