The Phoenician colonies were all supposed to have been founded from Tyre: with regard to the colonies in Cyprus and north Africa this was undoubtedly true. Cyprus possessed resources of timber and copper which could not fail to tempt the keen-eyed traders across the water, who made Citium (from Kittim, the name of the original non-Semitic inhabitants) their chief settlement, and thence established themselves in Idalium, Tamassus, Lapethus, Larnaka, Qarth-ḥadasht (Karti-hadasti) and other towns. In the inscriptions of the 4th to 3rd centuries, the Phoenician potentates in the island call themselves “kings of Kition and Idalion” (NSI. pp. 55-89). But the Phoenician rule was not so ancient as used to be supposed. At an early period Greeks from the south coast of Asia Minor had settled in Cyprus before the Phoenicians founded any colonies there; and it is noticeable that in the Assyrian tribute-lists of the latter half of the 7th century (K B. ii. pp. 149, 241) not one of the ten Cyprian kings mentioned appears to be Phoenician by name. Menander states (Jos. Ant. ix. 14, 2) that the kings of Tyre ruled over Cyprus at the close of the 8th century; but a clear proof that the Phoenician rule was neither ancient nor uninterrupted is given by the fact that the Cyprian Greeks took the trouble to invent a Greek cuneiform character (Cypriote) modelled on the Assyrian.
Homer represents the Phoenicians as present in Greek waters for purposes of traffic, but not as settlers (Il. xxiii. 744). They occupied trading-stations on some of the Aegean islands and on the Isthmus of Corinth. One of their objects was the collection of murex, of which an enormous supply was needed for the dyeing industry; specially famous was the purple of the Laconian waters, the isles of Elishah of Ezek. xxvii. 7. But a great deal of what was formerly assigned to Phoenician influence in the Aegean at an early period-pottery, ornaments and local myths must be accounted for by the vigorous civilization of ancient Crete. In the Greek world the Phoenicians made themselves heartily detested, their characteristic passion for gain (τὸ φιλοχρήματον, Plato, Rep. iv. 435 E.) was not likely to ingratiate them with those who were compelled to make use of their services while they suffered from their greed.
Farther west in the Mediterranean Phoenician settlements were planted first in Sicily, on the south coast, at Heraclea or Ras Melqarth, the islands between Sicily and Africa, Melita (Malta) on account of its valuable harbour, Gaulus and Cossura were also occupied (Diod. v. 12); and a beginning was made with the colonization of Sardinia and Corsica; but farther west still, and on the Atlantic coasts to the right and left of the straits, more permanent colonies were established. It was the trade with Tarshish, i.e. the region of Tartessus in south-west Spain, which contributed most to the Phoenicians' wealth; for in this region they owned not only profitable fisheries, but rich mines of silver and other metals. The profits of the trade were enormous; it was said that even the anchors of ships returning from Spain were made of silver (Diod. v. 35). From Gadeira (Punic Gādēr, Lat. Gades, now Cadiz), the town which they built on an island near the mouth of the Guadalquiver, the Sidonian ships ventured farther on the ocean and drew tin from the mines of north-west Spain or from the richer deposits in the Cassiterides, i.e. the Tin Islands. These were discovered to be, not a part of Britain as was imagined at first, but a separate group by themselves, now known as the Scillies; hence it is improbable that the Phoenicians ever worked the tin-mines in Cornwall.
The rich trade with Spain led to the colonization of the West. Strabo dates the settlements beyond the Pillars of Hercules soon after the Trojan War (i. 3, 2), in the period of Tyre's first expansion. Lixus in Mauretania, Gades and Utica, are said to have been founded, one after the other, as far back as the 12th century B.C. Most of the African colonies were no doubt younger; we have traditional dates for Aoza (887-855) and Carthage (813). A large part of North-west Africa was colonized from Phoenicia, owing to these first settlers, and after them to the Carthaginians, the Phoenician language became the prevailing one, just as Latin and Arabic did in later times, and the country assumed quite a Phoenician character.
In the days of Tyre's greatness her power rested directly on the colonies, which, unlike those of Greece, remained subject to the mother-city, and paid tithes of their revenues to its chief god, Melqarth, and sent envoys annually to his feast. Then at the beginning of the 8th century B.C. the colonial power of Tyre began to decline; on the mainland and in Cyprus the Assyrians gained the upper hand; in the Greek islands the Phoenicians had already been displaced to a great extent by the advancing tide of Dorian colonization. But as Tyre decayed in power the colonies turned more and more to Carthage as their natural parent and protector. For effective control over a colonial empire Carthage had the advantage of situation over far-away Tyre; the traditional bonds grew lax and the ancient dues ceased to be paid, though as late as the middle of the 6th century Carthage rendered tithes to the Tyrian Melqarth. And the mother-country cherished its claims long after they had lost reality, in the 2nd century B.C., for example, Sidon stamped her coins with the legend, “Mother of Kambē (i.e. Carthage), Hippo, Kition, Tyre” (NSI. p. 352).
Manufactures, Inventions, Art.—From an early date the towns of the Phoenician coast were occupied, not only with distributing the merchandise of other countries but with working at industries of their own; especially purple-dyeing and textile fabrics (Il. vi. 289 sqq.), metal work in siiver, gold and electrum (Il. xxiii. 741 sqq.; Od. iv. 615 sqq., xv. 458 sqq.), and glass-work, which had its seat at Sidon. The iron and copper mines of Cyprus (not Sidon, as Homer implies, Od. xv. 424) furnished the ore which was manufactured into articles of commerce.[1] Egyptian monuments frequently mention the vessels of gold and silver, iron and copper, made by the Dahi, i.e. the Phoenicians (W. M. Müller, As. u. Eur. 306); and in Cyprus and at Nimrud bronze and silver paterae have been found, engraved with Egyptian designs, the work of Phoenician artists (see table-cases C and D in the Nimrud gallery of the Brit. Mus.) The invention of these various arts and industries was popularly ascribed to the Phoenicians, no doubt merely because Phoenician traders brought the products into the market. But dyeing and embroidery probably came from Babylon in the first instance; glass-making seems to have been borrowed from Egypt; the invention of arithmetic and of weights and measures must be laid to the credit of the Babylonians. The ancients believed that the Phoenicians invented the use of the alphabet (e.g. Pliny, N.H. v. 13, cf. vii. 57; Lucan, Bell. Civ. iii. 220 seq.); but it is unlikely that any genuine tradition on the subject existed, and though the Phoenician theory has found favour in modern times it is open to much question. The Phoenicians cannot be said to have invented any of the arts or industries, as the ancient world imagined; but what they did was something hardly less meritorious: they developed them with singular skill, and disseminated the knowledge and use of them.
The art of Phoenicia is characterized generally by its dependence upon the art of the neighbouring races. It struck out no original line of its own, and borrowed freely from foreign, especially Egyptian, models. Remains of sculpture, engraved bronzes and gems, show clearly the source to which the Phoenician artists went for inspiration; for example, the uraeus-frieze and the winged disk, the ankh or symbol of life, are Egyptian designs frequently imitated. It was in the times of the Persian monarchy that Phoenician art reached its highest development, and to this period belong the oldest sculptures and coins that have come down to us. A characteristic specimen of the former is the stele of Yehaw-milk, king of Gebal (CIS. i. 1), in which the king is represented in Persian dress, and the goddess to whom he is offering a bowl looks exactly like an Egyptian Isis-Hathor; the inscription mentions the various objects of bronze and gold, engraved work and temple furniture, which the king dedicated. The whole artistic movement in Phoenicia may be divided into two great periods: in the first, from the earliest times to the 4th century B.C., Egyptian influence and then Babylonian or Asiatic influence is predominant, but the national element is strongly marked; while in the second, Greek influence has obtained the mastery, and the native element, though making itself felt, is much less obtrusive. Throughout these periods works of art, such as statues of the gods and sarcophagi, were imported direct at first from Egypt and afterwards mainly from Rhodes. The oldest example of native sarcophagi are copied from Egyptian mummy-cases, painted with colours and ornamented with carvings in low relief; towards and during the Greek period the contours of the body be in to be marked more clearly on the cover. The finest sarcophagi that have been found in the necropolis of Sidon (now in the Imperial Museum, Constantinople) are not Phoenician at all, but exquisite specimens of Greek art. The Phoenicians spent much care on their burial-places, which have furnished the most important
- ↑ Traces of ancient mining for iron have been found in the Lebanon; cf. LXX. 1 Kings ii. 46c (ed. Swete), which has been taken to refer to this quarrying in search of iron; Jer. xv. 12. See Benzinger on 1 Kings ix. 19.
