PHOENICIA and the PHOENICIANS. — Phoenicians (Φοίνικες) is the name given by the Greeks to the inhabitants of the coastal region west of Lebanon, who themselves called themselves Canaanites (v. CANANEI).
It seems that the Egyptian *Fuh-wa* is the same word; etymologically *φοίνικες* appears to derive from *φοῖνιξ* “red,” which is the color of the purple dye, the principal product exported from that region. Both the Greeks (cf., e.g., Odyss., 4, 618) and the Israelites (cf. Deut. 3, 9; Jud. 10, 6; 12, etc.) also called the inhabitants of all Phoenicia “Sidonians.”
Properly speaking, Phoenicia—that is, the region extending from Rās en-Naqūrah (the modern border between Palestine and Syria) to the Nahr el-Kebīr (the ancient Eleutherus)—is largely a narrow strip of arable land, wider only at the mouths of the Nahr el-Qāsimīyeh (ancient Litas) and Nahr el-Kebīr, and behind the great coastal cities of Tyre, Sidon, Beirut, and Byblos. Well-watered by streams descending from Lebanon, this land is quite fertile (wheat, figs, wine, olives); the lower slopes of Lebanon lend themselves to horticulture and viticulture, while the higher elevations were once covered by forests of cedars and cypresses. The abundance of produce, on the one hand, and the narrowness of the territory, on the other, drove the inhabitants from early times to export and to colonize, first in neighboring lands: southward as far as Mount Carmel, northward toward Mount Casios (J. el-Aqra’). Evidence of this are the cities of Akko, Arados (Ruad), Ugarit (Ras Shamra), and later Tripoli (at the mouth of the Nahr el-Qadīsah). The entire region between Akko and Mount Casios was known as Phoenicia in the broader sense. Transmarine colonization developed especially in the second half of the second millennium down to about 800 B.C. along the northern coast of Africa, where Carthage (founded under King Pygmalion, 820–774) was the most important colony. Phoenician ships even reached Spain (Tarshish, Tartessus, at the mouth of the Guadalquivir).
The inhabitants of Phoenicia were, at least from 3000 B.C. onward, Semites, as attested by their figures depicted on Egyptian monuments, which are of the same type as the “Canaanites” of pre-Israelite Palestine. Nothing is yet known of the race or origin of the peoples who preceded them. The language of the Phoenicians is known from many inscriptions found in Phoenicia itself, among which the oldest are the inscriptions of the kings of Byblos recently discovered (from the 13th–11th centuries), from inscriptions found in Phoenician colonies, and especially from the numerous texts found at Ugarit (Ras Shamra). Phoenician is a Semitic dialect of the Northwest group, akin to Hebrew and Moabite (Mesha Stele), and to the language of the Canaanite glosses in the Amarna letters. The Phoenician language remained in use for nearly 2,000 years; the latest complete inscription found dates to the 1st century B.C., but Lucian of Samosata (c. 125–190 A.D.) still knew the difference between Hebrew and Phoenician (Alexandros, § 13). The Punic mentioned by St. Augustine is a Phoenician dialect.
**PHOENICIA AND THE PHOENICIANS** — Inscription and relief from Karatepe (8th century B.C.).
**Phoenician civilization presents a highly complex character.** As Phoenicia was a land of transit from the Aegean and Egypt to Mesopotamia, its civilization was open to the influence of the cultures of all those countries, particularly Egypt, as excavations at Byblos and Ras Shamra demonstrate. Nevertheless, Phoenician art contains original elements that must be attributed to the uncommon artistic talent and great technical skill of the Phoenicians. The opinion, attributed by ancient Phoenician writers to their people, that they had discovered and transmitted almost all arts and crafts to other nations, is certainly false, but it remains true that not a few Phoenician inventions and works of art passed into Western civilizations, especially that of the Greeks. The most valuable contribution made by Phoenicia to the West is the alphabet, which passed to the Greeks in the 11th or 12th century B.C. and gave rise to the very name *Φοινικία γράμματα* (Herodotus, V, 58).
The Punic religion, derived from the Phoenician, underwent further modifications due to infiltrations from Libya and the interior of Africa.