Phoenicia

Group of city-states (and their residents) that occupied a strip of the Syrian coastal plain at the foot of the Lebanon Mountains. “Phoenicia” was also spelled “Phenice” or “Phenicia.” At one time these states extended from Carmel in the south to Arvad in the north, a distance of less than 200 miles (321.8 kilometers). Nowhere is the Phoenician plain more than four miles (6.4 kilometers) wide. In these fertile plains rose independent city-states, so Phoenicia was neither a political nor a geographical unity.

Bereft of good natural ports, the Phoenicians were forced to build their own. Fortunately, they had abundant supplies of magnificent cedar on the western slopes of the Lebanon Mountains, which they dominated. Thus they had good ship timber and an important source of revenue in a wood-starved region of the world. Offshore grew some of the finest dye-producing creatures (sea snails) of the Mediterranean, making possible quality textiles and dyestuffs. These two sources of income were supplemented by superior industrial production in metal and glassware and the transport of the goods of other peoples in Phoenician ships. With the passage of time, Phoenician colonies grew up along their trade routes. Prominent among them was Carthage.