Phenicia occupied the most important place in the ancient world. This state stretched from Egypt to Mesopotamia, favorably located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. Residents of the country managed to create a highly developed civilization with crafts, rich culture and sea trade. The writing of the Phoenicians is one of the oldest recorded in human history. It is interesting that it to a large extent influenced the formation of ancient Greek writing. The highest flowering of the Phoenician civilization occurred in 1200-800 BC.
Largest phoenician city
This definition can be applied immediately to several important centers of antiquity on the Mediterranean coast. For a sufficiently long period of existence of civilization, different cities reached an unprecedented peak and fell into decay. So, the largest Phoenician city of the early period is Sidon. He was later eclipsed by Tyr and especially Byblos.
Sidon
This ancient Phoenician city, like all civilization, owed its wealth and power to extensive commercial ties and active maritime trade. Among other things, Sidon at a certain stage was the most important center of the ancient world in some crafts. For example, glass was produced here, as well as purple paint, later bronze casting and jewelry were highly developed. Already in the XV-XIV centuries Sidon was an important cultural center.
Bible
It has been known since the 4th millennium BC. However, the true heyday of this center began from the end of the II millennium and continued until the conquests of
Alexander the Great. This largest Phoenician city was repeatedly mentioned in the Bible, called Gebal there. It is interesting that it was from this seaport that ancient papyrus was imported into Ancient Greece, which is why it was called “byblos” in the
ancient world , which, in turn, gave the name of the most famous book in the world.
Largest phoenician city of endangered civilization
The Phoenicians, like the later Greeks, very actively expanded their presence in the Mediterranean through the establishment of colonies. It is interesting that some Phoenician cities, created as colonial settlements far from the metropolis, eventually turned into powerful ones
city-states. The most famous of them is Carthage. The very worthy adversary of Rome, who waged long
Punic wars with him in the III-II centuries
BC. The city was founded by colonists from Tipa at the end of the 9th century BC. And after a significant decrease in the former Phoenician influence in the Mediterranean, Carthage manages to reassign yesterday's
Phoenician colonies. Already in the III century BC, it turns into the largest public entity in the entire western Mediterranean.
North Africa, Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, Southern Spain are subordinate to him. However, Carthage is faced with a worthy rival in the person of the still young Roman Republic. A series of wars with varying success put an end to the reign of the last Phoenicians in the Mediterranean.