A Brief History of the Phoenicians (1500 - 300 BC)

This video is brought to you by Captivating History. What does a vat of boiled carnivorous snails have to do with a 4,000-year-old extinct society? Turns out, quite a lot, actually. Every ancient civilization has its flair and historical ingenuity that modern people still find fascinating today. The Sumerians invented some of the first written languages and allegedly invented the wheel. That's still a great debate. The Greeks started democracy and they created the Olympics. The Romans are known for their great feats of engineering. They built aqueducts, roads, bridges, and, well, you get the picture. Today, we know about their civilizations because they left indelible marks on how we made our modern societies. We look back on history and can name quite a few ancient civilizations because they're still relevant in contemporary settings. Their impacts on government, writing, and cultural trends are part of our everyday society. But what about the Phoenicians? You might not have heard of them, but their many contributions are just as essential for us as other bygone civilizations. From around 1550 BCE to 300 BCE, the Phoenicia Empire had a significant civilization built primarily on shipping trade throughout the Mediterranean. They established coastline cities that allowed their people to have a rich, enterprising maritime trade culture. They created waterways of business for many of the civilizations at the time, making it possible for someone from Greece or Rome to communicate and trade with people as far away as Britain. The Phoenicians didn't have a centralized location for their government. Perhaps the city-state of Tyre came closest to their established authority. As an alternative, like many ancient ruling powers, Phoenicians established independent city-states—a single city with surrounding dependent territories—along the Mediterranean Sea. They used strategic city settings that allowed them a stronghold for maritime trade routes. Lebanon, Syria, and most of northern Israel, as we know them today, grew out of the Phoenician city-states. And the ancient city-state of Tyre is considered the most prominent Phoenician establishment, with over 30,000 citizens at its height of power. Phoenicians weren't interested in metalcrafts, writing and scrolls, or art—unless it had something to do with shipbuilding. Their entire society grew around their understanding of the Mediterranean Sea. That means that if you wanted to set up a trade route over water in 1550 BCE, you had to use Phoenician ships to haul your goods. Because their homelands had rugged and virtually impassable overland topography, with narrow, mountainous strips of impenetrable terrain, they had no choice but to use sea passages as a means to go around the rocky peninsulas. Phoenician shipbuilding was legendary, even for the Greeks. The neighbors praised their seamanship, and writers like Herodotus and Homer scribed their admiration for Phoenician sailing vessels. The shipbuilders created battering rams on bows and invented the keel. About a most longitudinal structure on most ships, they created caulk specifically designed to seal wood-plank hulls and keep out seawater. According to Assyrian relief carvings, even passages in the Book of Ezekiel in the Bible, we know the Phoenicians designed the perfect vessel for the right reasons. They had three major ship types. Each served particular functions for their trade routes. All Phoenician vessels had shallow keels. They used oars and masted square sails. Each ship had decks and rams on the bow. They built warships in case pirates wanted to raid their cargo ships. The cargo ships had big-bellied hulls, allowing for maximum capacity for freight. These ships had reinforced hulls and convex sterns and bows. They had capacities upward of 450 tons. Sometimes cargo fleets had over 50 boats, escorted by the warships. The third design was a smaller version of the cargo vessel with a horsehead and a single bank of oars. It was primarily used for shore trips and some fishing excursions. It wasn't just traveling between settlements that made their ships impressive. It was the craftsmanship that went into the cargo vessels. Phoenician shipbuilders understood that to make the most of any trip, they had to design vessels that not only negotiated around the mountainous coastlines, but also had to carry a lot of stuff to make it worth the trip. Phoenician cargo vessels hauled anything and everything, from people to pottery, precious metals, and ingots of copper, to one of their most famous inventions. We'll get to that in a bit. Phoenicians built world-class cargo ships, but they didn't use navigation instruments. Instead, they used the iconic coastline markers and natural features for navigational points. Their boats were as durable as their sailors, who used the stars and dead reckoning for finding their way to the next trading post. Eventually, sailors adopted important nautical inventions to allow them further avenues for trade. The Phoenicians became so proficient at sailing, they began expanding their trade routes beyond the safety of traditional Mediterranean navigating. Before their civilization dissolved, the Phoenicians took their hardy vessels beyond the Pillars of Hercules, straight of Gibraltar, and breached the Atlantic Ocean. They even got as far as Britain and Mesopotamian seaports. It was the Phoenician trade routes that established their prominence throughout the civilized world at the time. For nearly 1,250 years, the Phoenicians thrived as a significant part of the Bronze Age. They had it all – the best ships, the best sailors, trade routes, and shipping anything and everything to the neighboring people. So, what happened? The Phoenicians went without major shipping competition for a long time. Sometimes, when more prominent societies think there's a better way of doing things, they adapt the customs, or they take it all by force. The Phoenicians' reign in the Mediterranean ended not because they lacked commodity, but because they were sailors, traders, and not born conquerors. The beginning of the end of the Phoenicians happened when a guy with a big ego and a lot of time on his hands decided to march his troops into the cities of Sidon and Byblos in 332 BCE. That man was Alexander the Great. Both city-states were established by Phoenicia and submitted peacefully to Alexander's demands. When he eventually took his troops to the city of Tyre, that's when the Phoenician leaders decided they weren't interested in Alexander's offer of sacrifice in Tyre's holy temple of Melkart. According to Phoenician religious practices, outsiders weren't allowed to give sacrificial tributes to Tyre gods. Being a reasonable diplomat who understood the importance of having allies in troubling times, Alexander sent an envoy into the walled city to negotiate some sensibility when it came to religious rights and submission to the mighty conqueror. Local government officials of Tyre wanted no part of Alexander's envoy for negotiating a surrender. They sent a bold message to Alexander the Great by slaughtering his representatives and throwing their bodies over the city wall. Since Alexander the Great wasn't one to take no for an answer, he decided to make an example of the mighty city holding 30,000 residents. He ordered the siege of Tyre. His troops erected a causeway built of debris, felled trees, and city ruins to breach Tyre's stronghold. After seven months, Alexander the Great finally made it into the city proper. Immediately, he parlayed with the wealthiest of the citizens for their passage out of the Phoenician city with their lives, minus their cash. The rest of the people were massacred or forced into slavery. Once Tyre fell to Alexander, other Phoenician city-states submitted to his rule. The Phoenician civilization ended, and the Hellenistic Age began. By 64 BCE, anything left of the original Phoenician city-states was annexed and turned into the colonies for the Roman Empire. So, what was it about the predatory sea snails that was so important to the Phoenicians? Around 1570 BCE, while boiling a species of Mediterranean rock snails named Murex, they found the snail secreted a vivid purple dye. The color today is called Tyrian purple, and even in ancient times, it was highly prized. Phoenician purple wasn't easy to make. It took substantial harvests and tens of thousands of snails to brew a vat of imperial dye. For the intense labor and the incomparable and dazzling richness of the purple color, it became highly sought after. The Phoenicians used their maritime trading routes to network the fabric dye that was controlled, because everyone wanted a piece of the action. Different marine gastropods gave off variations of purple, but it was the Murex that gave off the treasured purple hue. At one point during the height of snail harvest and dye manufacturing, 4th century historian Theopompus said, purple for dyes fetched its weight in silver. There's something to be said about aggressive sea snails and the color purple. There's at least one contemporary singer-songwriter who owes a lot to purple. Without it, where would we be? If you want to discover more about the Phoenicians, then check out our book, The Phoenicians, a captivating guide to the history of Phoenicia and the impact made by one of the greatest trading civilizations of the ancient world. It's available as an e-book, paperback, and audiobook. Also, make sure to grab your free mythology bundle e-book for free while it's still available. All links are in the description. If you enjoyed the video, please hit the like button and subscribe for more videos like this.