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100-658: The Phoenicians and Carthaginians colonised the Mediterranean coast of Iberia in the 8th to 6th centuries BC. The Greeks later also established colonies along the coast. The Romans arrived in the 2nd century BC during the Second Punic War . The province Hispania Citerior Tarraconensis was established in the reign of Augustus as the direct successor of the Roman Republican province of Hispania Citerior ("nearer Hispania"), which had been ruled by

200-516: A Eurasian steppe population). One 2018 study of mitochondrial lineages in Sardinia concluded that the Phoenicians were "inclusive, multicultural and featured significant female mobility", with evidence of indigenous Sardinians integrating "peacefully and permanently" with Semitic Phoenician settlers. The study also found evidence suggesting that south Europeans may have likewise settled in

300-436: A Hellenization policy, whereby Hellenic culture, religion, and sometimes language were spread or imposed across conquered peoples. However, Hellenisation was not enforced most of the time and was just a language of administration until his death. This was typically implemented through the founding of new cities, the settlement of a Macedonian or Greek urban elite, and the alteration of native place names to Greek. However, there

400-468: A Punic term for 'Phoenicians', which may be reconstructed as * Pōnnīm . Since little has survived of Phoenician records or literature , most of what is known about their origins and history comes from the accounts of other civilizations and inferences from their material culture excavated throughout the Mediterranean. The scholarly consensus is that the Phoenicians' period of greatest prominence

500-862: A propraetor . The roots of the Augustan reorganisation of Hispania are found in Pompey the Great 's division of Hispania between three of his legates at the end of the Republic, immediately before his civil war with Julius Caesar . As a result of the agreements that led to the formation of the First Triumvirate in 60 BC, Pompey had received the governorship of the Iberian provinces. Given that he preferred to remain in Rome , where he could oversee affairs in

600-597: A "land of fnḫw ", fnḫw being the plural form of fnḫ , the Ancient Egyptian word for 'carpenter'. This "land of carpenters" is generally identified as Phoenicia, given that Phoenicia played a central role in the lumber trade of the Levant. As an exonym , fnḫw was evidently borrowed into Greek as φοῖνιξ , phoînix , which meant variably 'Phoenician person', ' Tyrian purple , crimson ' or ' date palm '. Homer used it with each of these meanings. The word

700-496: A Greek historian from Sicily c.  300 BC, places the foundation of Carthage in 814 BC, which is the date generally accepted by modern historians. Legend, including Virgil 's Aeneid , assigns the founding of the city to Queen Dido . Carthage would grow into a multi-ethnic empire spanning North Africa, Sardinia, Sicily, Malta, the Balearic Islands, and southern Iberia, but would ultimately be destroyed by Rome in

800-522: A claim that they came from Tylos and Arad ( Bahrain and Muharraq ). Some archaeologists working on the Persian Gulf have accepted these traditions and suggest a migration connected with the collapse of the Dilmun civilization c.  1750 BC. However, most scholars reject the idea of a migration; archaeological and historical evidence alike indicate millennia of population continuity in

900-650: A complex and influential civilization. Their best known legacy is the world's oldest verified alphabet , whose origin was connected to the Proto-Sinaitic script , and which was transmitted across the Mediterranean and used to develop the Arabic script and Greek alphabet and in turn the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets . The Phoenicians are also credited with innovations in shipbuilding, navigation, industry, agriculture, and government. Their international trade network

1000-581: A failed rebellion against Artaxerxes III , enlisting the help of the Egyptians, who were subsequently drawn into a war with the Persians. The resulting destruction of Sidon led to the resurgence of Tyre, which remained the dominant Phoenician city for two decades until the arrival of Alexander the Great. Phoenicia was one of the first areas to be conquered by Alexander the Great during his military campaigns across western Asia . Alexander's main target in

1100-452: A framework for the provincial territory which brought the provincials into contact with Roman culture ( Latin rapidly became the common language of the province) and gave them access to highly developed economic networks and a monetary economy . Ceramics began to be imported in large quantities - Arretine ware from Italy under Augustus and Tiberius and Samian ware from Gaul between the reigns of Caligula and Vespasian . The province

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1200-607: A hundred sites remain to be excavated, while others that have been are yet to be fully analysed. The Middle Bronze Age was a generally peaceful time of increasing population, trade, and prosperity, though there was competition for natural resources. In the Late Bronze Age , rivalry between Egypt, the Mittani, the Hittites, and Assyria had a significant impact on Phoenician cities. The Canaanite culture that gave rise to

1300-553: A major part of Phoenician wealth. The violet-purple dye derived from the hypobranchial gland of the Murex marine snail, once profusely available in coastal waters of the eastern Mediterranean Sea but exploited to local extinction. Phoenicians may have discovered the dye as early as 1750 BC. The Phoenicians established a second production center for the dye in Mogador , in present-day Morocco . The Phoenicians' exclusive command over

1400-433: A millennium. This network facilitated cultural exchanges among major cradles of civilization , such as Greece, Egypt, and Mesopotamia. The Phoenicians established colonies and trading posts across the Mediterranean; Carthage , a settlement in northwest Africa, became a major civilization in its own right in the seventh century BC. The Phoenicians were organized in city-states , similar to those of ancient Greece , of which

1500-661: A population coming from the North, related to ancient Anatolians or ancient South-Eastern Europeans (12–37%). The results show that a Steppe-like ancestry , typically found in Europeans, appears in the region starting from the Iron Age. The Phoenicians served as intermediaries between the disparate civilizations that spanned the Mediterranean and Near East, facilitating the exchange of goods and knowledge, culture, and religious traditions. Their expansive and enduring trade network

1600-766: A reduced military garrison in the province, consisting of the Legio VII Gemina Felix and its auxiliary units, which was focused mainly on supporting the work of the provincial governor, carrying out policing, and supervising mining work in the province. Pliny the Elder served as procurator in Tarraconensis in AD 73. Under Diocletian , in 293, Hispania Tarraconensis was divided in three smaller provinces: Gallaecia , Carthaginensis and Tarraconensis. The Imperial province of Hispania Tarraconensis lasted until

1700-462: A series of campaigns against neighboring states. The Phoenician city-states fell under his rule, forced to pay heavy tribute in money, goods, and natural resources. Initially, they were not annexed outright—they remained in a state of vassalage, subordinate to the Assyrians but allowed a certain degree of freedom. This changed in 744 BC with the ascension of Tiglath-Pileser III . By 738 BC, most of

1800-459: A surface area of around 380,000 km2 and an estimated population of 3-3.5 million (giving an average population density of 8-9 people/km2), at the date of its creation, Tarraconensis was probably the largest province in the Roman empire. Under Augustus ' division of the provinces in 27 BC, Tarraconensis was an Imperial province like Lusitania, while Baetica was a Senatorial province . Tarraconensis

1900-543: Is already attested in Mycenaean Greek Linear B from the 2nd millennium BC, as po-ni-ki-jo . In those records, it means 'crimson' or 'palm tree' and does not denote a group of people. The name Phoenicians , like Latin Poenī (adj. poenicus , later pūnicus ), comes from Greek Φοινίκη , Phoiníkē . Poenulus , a Latin comedic play written in the early 2nd century BC, appears to preserve

2000-455: Is an ancient Greek exonym that did not correspond precisely to a cohesive culture or society as it would have been understood natively. Therefore, the division between Canaanites and Phoenicians around 1200 BC is regarded as a modern and artificial division. The Phoenicians, known for their prowess in trade, seafaring and navigation, dominated commerce across classical antiquity and developed an expansive maritime trade network lasting over

2100-405: Is believed to have fostered the economic, political, and cultural foundations of Classical Western civilization . Being a society of independent city states, the Phoenicians apparently did not have a term to denote the land of Phoenicia as a whole; instead, demonyms were often derived from the name of the city an individual hailed from (e.g., Sidonian for Sidon , Tyrian for Tyre , etc.) If

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2200-613: Is credited with laying the foundations of an economically and culturally cohesive Mediterranean, which would be continued by the Greeks and especially the Romans. Phoenician ties with the Greeks ran deep. The earliest verified relationship appears to have begun with the Minoan civilization on Crete (1950–1450 BC), which together with the Mycenaean civilization (1600–1100 BC) is considered

2300-452: Is disputed, perhaps falling shortly after his accession to power in AD 69 or in AD 74. The concession of this right was used by many tributary and subordinate communities in Tarraconensis to transform themselves into municipia , e.g. Nova Augusta ( Lara de los Infantes , Burgos ), Bergidum Flavium ( Torre del Bierzo , El Bierzo , León ), Segovia , Duratón ( Segovia ), and Aqua Flaviae ( Chaves , Portugal ). The main cities in

2400-534: Is no record of Persian administrators governing the Phoenician city-states. Local Phoenician kings were allowed to remain in power and given the same rights as Persian satraps (governors), such as hereditary offices and minting their coins. The Phoenicians remained a core asset to the Achaemenid Empire, particularly for their prowess in maritime technology and navigation; they furnished the bulk of

2500-507: Is sometimes described as a "Phoenician renaissance". The Phoenician city-states filled the power vacuum caused by the Late Bronze Age collapse and created a vast mercantile network. The city-states during this time were Tyre, Sidon, Byblos, Aradus, Beirut, and Tripoli. The recovery of the Mediterranean economy can be credited to Phoenician mariners and merchants, who re-established long-distance trade between Egypt and Mesopotamia in

2600-532: Is unknown if the Phoenicians as a whole did so. Meseta Central The Meseta Central ( lit.   ' central tableland ' , sometimes referred to in English as Inner Plateau ) is one of the basic geographical units of the Iberian Peninsula . It consists of a plateau covering a large part of the latter's interior. Developed during the 19th century, the concept of meseta central

2700-633: The Legio VI Vitrix , two cavalry alae , and three infantry cohortes . In order to reinforce these troops, a new legion was recruited, the future Legio VII Gemina and a number of similar auxiliary units, notably the Vascones cohortes , but all these units joined Galba when he invaded Italy to seize the Imperial throne. In AD 69, Vitellius ordered the Legio X Gemina to be dispatched to

2800-718: The Neolithic Revolution in the Levant . The Late Bronze Age state of Ugarit is considered quintessentially Canaanite archaeologically, even though the Ugaritic language does not belong to the Canaanite languages proper. The fourth-century BC Greek historian Herodotus claimed that the Phoenicians had migrated from the Erythraean Sea around 2750 BC and the first-century AD geographer Strabo reports

2900-557: The Punic Wars (264–146 BC) before being rebuilt as a Roman city. As mercantile city-states concentrated along a narrow coastal strip of land, the Phoenicians lacked the size and population to support a large military. Thus, as neighboring empires began to rise, the Phoenicians increasingly fell under the sway of foreign rulers, who to varying degrees circumscribed their autonomy. The Assyrian conquest of Phoenicia began with King Shalmaneser III . He rose to power in 858 BC and began

3000-684: The Rhone valley and coastal Massalia ". Strabo states that there was a highly lucrative Phoenician trade with Britain for tin via the Cassiterides , whose location is unknown but may have been off the northwest coast of the Iberian Peninsula. Phoenicia lacked considerable natural resources other than its cedar wood. Timber was probably the earliest and most lucrative source of wealth; neither Egypt nor Mesopotamia had adequate wood sources. Unable to rely solely on this limited resource,

3100-645: The Roman tribe of Galeria, except for Caesaraugusta, which was in that of Aniensis. All free men who served as municipal magistrates ( duoviri or aediles ) in municipia would obtain Roman citizenship, being assigned to the tribe Quirina. According to Pliny the Elder, the Emperor Vespasian extended Latin citizenship to all other inhabitants of Hispania, which meant that they were legally permitted to conduct business under Roman law ( ius commercii ) and marry Roman woman ( ius conubii ). The date of this grant

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3200-573: The flamen Augusti and flamenica Augusti , who were chosen by the elites of the privileged communities of the province (the coloniae and municipia ). Each year, they chose one of their number to be the flamen and flamenica (they were not required to be married to one another) of the Imperial cult for the whole province, discharging their functions in the provincial forum in Tarraco. The fiscal administration of Tarraconensis mostly fell to an Imperial procurator ( procurator Caesaris ), appointed by

3300-588: The 10th century BC. Early into the Iron Age , the Phoenicians established ports, warehouses, markets, and settlement all across the Mediterranean and up to the southern Black Sea. Colonies were established on Cyprus , Sardinia , the Balearic Islands , Sicily , and Malta , as well as the coasts of North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula. Phoenician hacksilver dated to this period bears lead isotope ratios matching ores in Sardinia and Spain, indicating

3400-614: The 1st century AD at the latest, five auxiliary units of the Legio VII Gemina were stationed in the province: This arrangement endured from the 2nd century through to the fifth century AD, with the maximum garrison of Roman troops in Hispanis never exceeding a total of 7712 soldiers. 41°06′59″N 1°15′19″E  /  41.1165°N 1.2552°E  / 41.1165; 1.2552 Phoenicians The Phoenicians were an ancient Semitic group of people who lived in

3500-486: The 293 communities that are subordinate to others) 179 cities, among which there are 12 coloniae , 13 cities of Roman citizens, 18 of old Latins , 1 city of foederati , and 135 cities subject to tax. All free inhabitants of Roman coloniae held Roman citizenship. The coloniae in the province, established by Julius Caesar , the Second Triumvirate , or Augustus , both coloniae and municipia belonged to

3600-710: The Cantabrians – the pair's first military commands. The name of the province derives from its capital, Colonia Urbs Triumphalis Tarraco . The provincial borders were modified in 12 BC, in order to incorporate the Galician and Asturian territories which had previously belonged to Lusitania, and perhaps to an ephemeral Transduriana province before that, as well as the mining area around Castulo that had previously been part of Baetica. This reorganisation meant that all Roman troops stationed in Hispania were henceforth under

3700-460: The Emperor directly from among the equestrian order . This procurator was based in the provincial capital and managed the collection of taxes for the whole province. Nevertheless, from the late first century or early second century AD, the gold mines in the northwestern part of the province were managed by a separate procurator, the procurator metallorum , who was usually and Imperial freedman and

3800-627: The Iberian peninsula, accompanied by the Legio I Adiutrix . We do not know exactly where they were stationed; it may have been in Baetica and the southeastern part of Tarraconensis to prevent a possible invasion from North Africa, which was controlled by Lucius Clodius Macer . In any case, both legions and the Legio VI Victrix abandoned Vitellius and declared their support for Vespasian , who quickly sent them to Germania Inferior to suppress

3900-695: The Levant since at least the Bronze Age . More specifically, the research of geneticist Chris Tyler-Smith and his team at the Sanger Institute in Britain, who compared "sampled ancient DNA from five Canaanite people who lived 3,750 and 3,650 years ago" to modern people, revealed that 93 percent of the genetic ancestry of people in Lebanon came from the Canaanites (the other 7 percent was of

4000-424: The Levant, including northern Phoenicia, were annexed; only Tyre and Byblos, the most powerful city-states, remained tributary states outside of direct Assyrian control. Tyre, Byblos, and Sidon all rebelled against Assyrian rule. In 721 BC, Sargon II besieged Tyre and crushed the rebellion. His successor Sennacherib suppressed further rebellions across the region. During the seventh century BC, Sidon rebelled and

4100-539: The Mediterranean, from Cyprus to the Iberian Peninsula . The Phoenicians directly succeeded the Bronze Age Canaanites , continuing their cultural traditions following the decline of most major cultures in the Late Bronze Age collapse and into the Iron Age without interruption. It is believed that they self-identified as Canaanites and referred to their land as Canaan, indicating a continuous cultural and geographical association. The name Phoenicia

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4200-623: The Mediterranean. Excavations of colonies in Spain suggest they also used the potter's wheel . Their exposure to a wide variety of cultures allowed them to manufacture goods for specific markets. The Iliad suggests Phoenician clothing and metal goods were highly prized by the Greeks. Specialized goods were designed specifically for wealthier clientele, including ivory reliefs and plaques, carved clam shells, sculpted amber, and finely detailed and painted ostrich eggs. The most prized Phoenician goods were fabrics dyed with Tyrian purple , which formed

4300-929: The Meseta Central, leaving the Submeseta Norte sub-unit (with heights mostly ranging from 700 to 800 m) to the North and the Submeseta Sur (with heights mostly ranging from 600 to 700 m) to the South. Respectively, the former is drained by the Douro while the latter is drained by the Tagus and the Guadiana . The meseta is flanked by relief units such as the Montes de León , the Galician Massif ,

4400-556: The Near East, the Phoenicians apparently made the pragmatic calculation of "[yielding] themselves to the Persians". Most of the Levant was consolidated by Cyrus into a single satrapy (province) and forced to pay a yearly tribute of 350 talents , which was roughly half the tribute that was required of Egypt and Libya. The Phoenician area was later divided into four vassal kingdoms—Sidon, Tyre, Arwad, and Byblos—which were allowed considerable autonomy. Unlike in other empire areas, there

4500-580: The Persian Levant was Tyre, now the region's largest and most important city. It capitulated after a roughly seven month siege , during which many of its citizens fled to Carthage. Tyre's refusal to allow Alexander to visit its temple to Melqart , culminating in the killing of his envoys, led to a brutal reprisal: 2,000 of its leading citizens were crucified and a puppet ruler was installed. The rest of Phoenicia easily came under his control, with Sidon surrendering peacefully. Alexander's empire had

4600-738: The Persian fleet during the Greco-Persian Wars of the late fifth century BC. Phoenicians under Xerxes I built the Xerxes Canal and the pontoon bridges that allowed his forces to cross into mainland Greece. Nevertheless, they were harshly punished by the Persian King following his defeat at the Battle of Salamis , which he blamed on Phoenician cowardice and incompetence. In the mid-fourth century BC, King Tennes of Sidon led

4700-636: The Phoenician cities were mainly self-governed. Many of them were fought for or over by the warring factions of the Seleucid royal family. Some Phoenician regions were under Jewish influence, after the Jews revolted and succeeded in defeating the Seleucids in 164 BC. A significant portion of the Phoenician diaspora in North Africa thus converted to Judaism in the late millennium BC. The Seleucid Kingdom

4800-408: The Phoenician city-states along a coastal strip in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean , primarily modern Lebanon . They developed a maritime civilization which expanded and contracted throughout history, with the core of their culture stretching from Arwad in modern Syria to Mount Carmel . The Phoenicians extended their cultural influence through trade and colonization throughout

4900-416: The Phoenicians apparently developed in situ from the earlier Ghassulian chalcolithic culture. Ghassulian itself developed from the Circum-Arabian Nomadic Pastoral Complex , which in turn developed from a fusion of their ancestral Natufian and Harifian cultures with Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) farming cultures, practicing the domestication of animals during the 8.2 kiloyear event , which led to

5000-504: The Phoenicians developed an industrial base manufacturing a variety of goods for both everyday and luxury use. The Phoenicians developed or mastered techniques such as glass-making , engraved and chased metalwork (including bronze, iron, and gold), ivory carving, and woodwork. The Phoenicians were early pioneers in mass production, and sold a variety of items in bulk. They became the leading source of glassware in antiquity, shipping thousands of flasks, beads, and other glass objects across

5100-420: The Phoenicians had an endonym to denote the land overall, some scholars believe that they would have used " Canaan " and therefore referred to themselves as "Canaanites". Krahmalkov reconstructs the Honeyman inscription (dated to c.  900 BC by William F. Albright ) as containing a reference to the Phoenician homeland, calling it Pūt ( Phoenician : 𐤐𐤕). Obelisks at Karnak contain references to

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5200-443: The Roman conquest but operating under the direct supervision of the provincial governors. These communities - both Roman and indigenous - generally enjoyed a high level of autonomy, administering themselves without excessive intervention from the governors. Over time, the indigenous communities tended to adapt their institutions of self-government to match the model of the Roman municipia and coloniae . The principal difference between

5300-415: The annexation of these territories during the Cantabrian Wars (27–19 BC). Augustus himself resided from 27 to 26 BC at Segisama (modern Sasamón , Burgos ), and at Tarraco, where he received an embassy from India . During this period he was accompanied by his nephew and heir, Marcellus , and his stepson, the future emperor Tiberius , both of whom served as military tribunes in 25 BC in the conflict with

5400-420: The area of modern Lebanon. In a 2020 study published in the American Journal of Human Genetics , researchers have shown that there is substantial genetic continuity in Lebanon since the Bronze Age interrupted by three significant admixture events during the Iron Age , Hellenistic , and Ottoman period. In particular, the Phoenicians can be modeled as a mixture of the local Bronze Age population (63–88%) and

5500-446: The capital, he delegated the government of Hispania to three legates: At the end of the civil wars , Pompey's division was consolidated by Augustus in 27 BC, when he formally established the three provinces of Hispania Citerior Tarraconensis, Hispania Ulterior Lusitania (corresponding to modern Portugal , apart from the northern region of the modern country, plus Spanish Extremadura ), and Hispania Ulterior Baetica (corresponding to

5600-549: The city they hailed from (e.g., Sidonian for Sidon , Tyrian for Tyre , etc.) A 2008 study led by Pierre Zalloua found that six subclades of Haplogroup J-M172 (J2)—thought to have originated between the Caucasus Mountains , Mesopotamia and the Levant —were of a "Phoenician signature" and present amongst the male populations of coastal Lebanon as well as the wider Levant (the "Phoenician Periphery"), followed by other areas of historic Phoenician settlement, spanning Cyprus through to Morocco. This deliberate sequential sampling

5700-438: The command of a single Roman legate based at Tarraconensis and that the main mining regions, which supplied precious metals to the Imperial treasury (gold in the Galician Massif , silver in Sierra Morena ), were under the direct control of the Imperial administration, with easy access by sea to Italia and Rome, where the Imperial mints were located. In addition to creating the province and setting its borders, Augustus followed

5800-460: The designs, ornamentation, and embroidery used in Phoenician textiles were well-regarded, the techniques and specific descriptions are unknown. Mining operations in the Phoenician homeland were limited; iron was the only metal of any worth. The first large-scale mining operations probably occurred in Cyprus, principally for copper. Sardinia may have been colonized almost exclusively for its mineral resources; Phoenician settlements were concentrated in

5900-415: The directions left by Julius Caesar in granting many communities in the province the privileged status of colonia or municipium (Roman or Latin ), especially along the Levante coast , the part of Baetica transferred to the province in 12 BC, and the Ebro Valley , along with some foundations on the Meseta Central and in the northeast. He also regularised the status of the other political entities in

6000-422: The eastern Mediterranean gradually declined due to external influences and conquests. Yet, their presence persisted in the central and western Mediterranean until the destruction of Carthage in the mid-second century BC. The Phoenicians were long considered a lost civilization due to the lack of indigenous written records, and only since the mid-20th century have historians and archaeologists been able to reveal

6100-401: The extent of Phoenician trade networks. By the tenth century BC, Tyre rose to become the richest and most powerful Phoenician city-state, particularly during the reign of Hiram I ( c.  969–936 BC). The expertise of Phoenician artisans sent by Hiram I of Tyre in significant construction projects during the reign of Solomon , the King of Israel, is documented in the Bible. During

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6200-434: The height of Phoenician shipping, mercantile, and cultural activity, particularly between 750 and 650 BC. The Phoenician influence was visible in the "orientalization" of Greek cultural and artistic conventions. Among their most popular goods were fine textiles, typically dyed with Tyrian purple . Homer's Iliad , which was composed during this period, references the quality of Phoenician clothing and metal goods. Carthage

6300-522: The interior (via the Nahr al-Kabir and the Orontes rivers ). The cities provided Egypt with access to Mesopotamian trade and abundant stocks of the region's native cedarwood . There was no equivalent in the Egyptian homeland. By the mid-14th century BC, the Phoenician city-states were considered "favored cities" to the Egyptians. Tyre, Sidon, Beirut, and Byblos were regarded as the most important. The Phoenicians had considerable autonomy, and their cities were reasonably well developed and prosperous. Byblos

6400-456: The invasions of the 5th century, beginning in 409, when Suebi , Vandals and Alans crossed the Pyrenees, and ended with the establishment of a Visigothic kingdom . The invasion resulted in widespread exploitation of metals, especially gold , tin and silver . The alluvial gold mines at Las Medulas show that Roman engineers worked the deposits on a very large scale using several aqueducts up to 30 miles (48 km) long to tap water in

6500-440: The large terracotta jars used for transporting wine. From Egypt, the Phoenicians bought Nubian gold. From elsewhere, they obtained other materials, perhaps the most crucial being silver , mostly from Sardinia and the Iberian Peninsula . Tin for making bronze "may have been acquired from Galicia by way of the Atlantic coast of southern Spain; alternatively, it may have come from northern Europe ( Cornwall or Brittany ) via

6600-402: The most notable were Tyre , Sidon , and Byblos . Each city-state was politically independent, and there is no evidence the Phoenicians viewed themselves as a single nationality. While most city-states were governed by some form of kingship , merchant families probably exercised influence through oligarchies . After reaching its zenith in the ninth century BC, the Phoenician civilization in

6700-572: The north. Egypt subsequently lost its coastal holdings from Ugarit in northern Syria to Byblos near central Lebanon. Sometime between 1200 and 1150 BC, the Late Bronze Age collapse severely weakened or destroyed most civilizations in the region, including the Egyptians and Hittites. The Phoenicians were able to survive and navigate the challenges of the crisis, and by 1230 BC city-states such as Tyre, Sidon, and Byblos, maintained political independence, asserted their maritime interests through overseas colonization, and enjoyed economic prosperity. The period

6800-411: The production and trade of the dye, combined with the labor-intensive extraction process, made it very expensive. Tyrian purple subsequently became associated with the upper classes. It soon became a status symbol in several civilizations, most notably among the Romans. Assyrian tribute records from the Phoenicians include "garments of brightly colored stuff" that most likely included Tyrian purple. While

6900-507: The progenitor of classical Greece. Archaeological research suggests that the Minoans gradually imported Near Eastern goods, artistic styles, and customs from other cultures via the Phoenicians. To Egypt the Phoenicians sold logs of cedar for significant sums, and wine beginning in the eighth century. The wine trade with Egypt is vividly documented by shipwrecks discovered in 1997 in the open sea 50 kilometres (30 mi) west of Ascalon , Israel. Pottery kilns at Tyre and Sarepta produced

7000-425: The province Hispania Tarraconensis covered about two thirds of the Iberian Peninsula . The Pyrenees mountains to the north formed the border with Gaul . The border with Lusitania to the southwest ran from the Cale (modern Oporto , Portugal ) along the Douro river and then the Tormes river. The border with Baetica ran from Castulo (modern Linares ), through Acci ( Guadix ), to the bay of Almería . With

7100-440: The province since AD 61, was invited by Vindex to join his rebellion against Nero. When Galba received news that Nero had decided to have him killed, he accepted Vindex's offer, justifying the decision, according to Suetonius , by an oracle delivered by a young prophet two centuries earlier, which predicted that a new ruler of the world would arise in Clunia . Therefore, Galba proclaimed himself emperor at Clunia. After receiving

7200-648: The province were: In order to guarantee order and security in the province after the Cantabrian Wars (26 BC–19 BC), three legions were established in the province: These legions were supported by various auxiliary units, like the Ala Parthorum and the Cohors IV Gallorum , but it is very difficult to tell exactly where and when these units were garrisoned in the peninsula. In AD 68, according to Suetonius , Galba removed one legion,

7300-450: The province, the civitates stipendiaria (communities subject to tribute), whose affairs could be directly intervened in by the governor. This policy was continued by Tiberius (AD 14–37), who increased the number of municipia in the northern part of the Meseta Central. Between the reigns of Augustus and Nero , imperial interventions led to the regularisation of the old pre-Roman roads and their conversion into Roman roads , which formed

7400-707: The rare U5b2c1 maternal haplogroup was identified in the DNA of a 2,500-year-old male skeleton excavated from a Punic tomb in Tunisia. The lineage of this "Young Man of Byrsa" is believed to represent early gene flow from Iberia to the Maghreb . According to a 2017 study published by the American Journal of Human Genetics , present-day Lebanese derive most of their ancestry from a Canaanite -related population, which therefore implies substantial genetic continuity in

7500-561: The region in the 8th millennium BC". Brian R. Doak states that scholars use "Phoenicians" as a short-hand for "Canaanites living in a set of cities along the northern Levantine coast who shared a language and material culture in the Iron I–II period and who also developed an organized system of colonies in the western Mediterranean world". The Phoenician Early Bronze Age is largely unknown. The two most important sites are Byblos and Sidon-Dakerman (near Sidon), although, as of 2021, well over

7600-495: The region, and recent genetic research indicates that present-day Lebanese derive most of their ancestry from a Canaanite-related population. The first known account of the Phoenicians relates to the conquests of Pharaoh Thutmose III (1479–1425 BC). The Egyptians targeted coastal cities which they wrote belonged to the Fenekhu , 'carpenters', such as Byblos, Arwad, and Ullasa for their crucial geographic and commercial links with

7700-503: The reigns of the first Babylonian King, Nabopolassar (626–605 BC), and his son Nebuchadnezzar II ( c.  605 – c.  562 BC). In 587 BC Nebuchadnezzar besieged Tyre, which resisted for thirteen years, but ultimately capitulated under "favorable terms". In 539 BC, Cyrus the Great , king and founder of the Persian Achaemenid Empire , took Babylon. As Cyrus began consolidating territories across

7800-529: The revolt of Gaius Julius Civilis . Subsequently, in AD 74, Vespasian ordered the Legio VII Gemina to be garrisoned in Leon at the site of the old camp of the Legio VI Victrix . The Legio VII Gemina continued to garrison the province until the beginning of the 5th century AD. The Legio VII Gemina dispatched vexillationes to the following parts of the provinces in Hispania: By the last quarter of

7900-518: The rule of the priest Ithobaal (887–856 BC), Tyre expanded its territory as far north as Beirut and into part of Cyprus; this unusual act of aggression was the closest the Phoenicians ever came to forming a unitary territorial state. Once his realm reached its largest territorial extent, Ithobaal declared himself "King of the Sidonians", a title that would be used by his successors and mentioned in both Greek and Jewish accounts. The Late Iron Age saw

8000-506: The scale of the province, at some point between the reigns of Tiberius and Claudius , the province was divided into seven conventus iuridici (assize districts), each managed by a legatus iuridicus , who was appointed by the Emperor directly. These districts were: In each of the conventus capitals there was an Imperial cult centre, dedicated to the Genius Augusti and the deified emperors, with its own male and female priests,

8100-459: The southern part of Spain, i.e. Andalusia ). Citerior and Lusitania were Imperial provinces , while Baetica was a Senatorial province . The creation of these new provinces was achieved in order to facilitate the incorporation of the northwestern portion of the Iberian peninsula, inhabited by the Gallaeci , Cantabri , and Astures , into the Roman empire. Tarraconensis thus served as a base for

8200-572: The southern parts of the island, close to sources of copper and lead. Piles of scoria and copper ingots, which appear to predate Roman occupation, suggest the Phoenicians mined and processed metals on the island. The Iberian Peninsula was the richest source of numerous metals in antiquity, including gold, silver, copper, iron, tin, and lead. The significant output of these metals during the Phoenician and Carthaginian occupation strongly implied large scale mining operations. The Carthaginians are documented to have relied on slave labor for mining, though it

8300-546: The support of the governor of Lusitania, the future emperor Otho , he expanded the military forces of the province, which consisted of the Legio VI Victrix, two cavalry alae , and three infantry cohortes , by recruiting various auxiliaries , at least three cohorts of Vascones , and the Legio VII Galbiana , and then he set out for Rome in order to seize power. After Galba was assassinated, the province

8400-476: The surrounding mountains. By running fast water streams on the soft rocks, they were able to extract large quantities of gold by hydraulic mining methods ( Ruina montium ). When the gold had been exhausted, they followed the auriferous seams underground by tunnels using fire-setting to break up the much harder gold-bearing rocks. Pliny the Elder gives a good account of the methods used in Hispania, presumably based on his own observations. At its greatest extent,

8500-428: The two types of community was the application of Roman law to them. For citizens of coloniae and muncipia it was obligatory, while for non-Romans it was optional, except in interactions with the Imperial authorities and with individual Roman citizens , in which case Roman law over-ruled local legal systems. According to Strabo, Pliny the Elder (who served as procurator the province), and Claudius Ptolemy , there

8600-578: Was 1200 BC to the end of the Persian period (332 BC). It is debated whether Phoenicians were actually distinct from the broader group of Semitic-speaking peoples known as Canaanites . Historian Robert Drews believes the term "Canaanites" corresponds to the ethnic group referred to as "Phoenicians" by the ancient Greeks; archaeologist Jonathan N. Tubb argues that " Ammonites , Moabites , Israelites , and Phoenicians undoubtedly achieved their own cultural identities, and yet ethnically they were all Canaanites", "the same people who settled in farming villages in

8700-647: Was a substantial number of cities in Tarraconensis, especially in the Ebro Valley and on the Mediterranean coast, but fewer in number in the north and northwest, along the Cantabiran coast and in Galicia . Excepting the communities on the Balearic Islands , Pliny states that: Now, the whole province is divided into 7 conventus : Carthaginiensis, Tarraconensis, Caesaraugustus, Clunienis, Asturus, Lucensis, and Bracarus... The province itself contains (aside from

8800-527: Was an attempt to develop a methodology to link the documented historical expansion of a population with a particular geographic genetic pattern or patterns. The researchers suggested that the proposed genetic signature stemmed from "a common source of related lineages rooted in Lebanon ". Another study in 2006 found evidence for the genetic persistence of Phoenicians in the Spanish island of Ibiza . In 2016,

8900-425: Was based at Asturica Augusta . These procurators reported directly to the emperor, not to the provincial governor, although in practice both had to collaborate with the provincial administration. The lowest level of administration in the province were the cities (Latin: civitates ), organised politically in the Roman manner ( coloniae and municipia ) or in a traditional mode retaining institutions that preceded

9000-444: Was controlled in succession by partisans of Otho, then Vitelius , before finally coming under the control of Vespasian , the first Flavian emperor. Under Vespasian an edict seems to have been promulgated, perhaps in AD 74, which permitted many of the province's urban communities to become municipia with Latin rights over the course of his reign and that of his successors, Titus and Domitian . Vespasian also decided to maintain

9100-491: Was delivering goods to Tyre. The adaptation to Macedonian rule was probably aided by the Phoenicians' historical ties with the Greeks, with whom they shared some mythological stories and figures; the two peoples were even sometimes considered "relatives". When Alexander's empire collapsed after his death in 323 BC, the Phoenicians came under the control of the largest of its successors, the Seleucids . The Phoenician homeland

9200-589: Was destroyed by Esarhaddon , who enslaved its inhabitants and built a new city on its ruins. By the end of the century, the Assyrians had been weakened by successive revolts, which led to their destruction by the Median Empire . The Babylonians, formerly vassals of the Assyrians, took advantage of the empire's collapse and rebelled, quickly establishing the Neo-Babylonian Empire in its place. Phoenician cities revolted several times throughout

9300-622: Was effectively at peace except for an attempt at rebellion by the Astures under Nero which was easily suppressed by a primus pilus of the Legio VI Victrix . As a result, it was possible to progressively reduce the military garrison of the province. In AD 42-43, Claudius transferred the Legio IV Macedonica to Germania and in AD 63 Nero sent the Legio X Gemina to Pannonia . In AD 68, Galba , who had governed

9400-468: Was founded by Phoenicians coming from Tyre, probably initially as a station in the metal trade with the southern Iberian Peninsula . The city's name in Punic , Qart-Ḥadašt ( 𐤒𐤓𐤕 𐤇𐤃𐤔𐤕 ‎) , means 'New City'. There is a tradition in some ancient sources, such as Philistos of Syracuse , for an "early" foundation date of around 1215 BC—before the fall of Troy in 1180 BC. However, Timaeus ,

9500-517: Was handled by Heinrich Moritz Willkomm in lower case , and eventually Salvador Calderón y Arana  [ es ] was reportedly the first in using it in upper case , giving it a toponymic nature. The concept was also brought forward by José Macpherson y Hemas , while the writers of the Spanish Generation of '98 greatly contributed to its popularisation among the public sphere. The Sistema Central mountain range cuts across

9600-551: Was no organized Hellenization in Phoenicia, and with one or two minor exceptions, all Phoenician city-states retained their native names, while Greek settlement and administration appear to have been very limited. The Phoenicians maintained cultural and commercial links with their western counterparts. Polybius recounts how the Seleucid King Demetrius I escaped from Rome by boarding a Carthaginian ship that

9700-410: Was of consular rank , while the other two were praetorian . The governor was entitled legatus Augusti pro praetore , who was a senator of consular rank. The capital of the province was the colonia of Tarraco . In the time of Augustus and Tiberius , according to Strabo , the province was garrisoned by three legions – subsequently reduced to two by Caligula , and to one by Nero . Because of

9800-549: Was repeatedly contested by the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt during the forty-year Syrian Wars , coming under Ptolemaic rule in the third century BC. The Seleucids reclaimed the area the following century, holding it until the mid-first 2nd century BC. Under their rule, the Phoenicians were allowed a considerable degree of autonomy and self-governance. During the Seleucid Dynastic Wars (157–63 BC),

9900-529: Was seized by Tigranes the Great of Armenia in 82 BC, ending the Hellenistic influence on the Levant. The people now known as Phoenicians were a group of ancient Semitic-speaking peoples that emerged in the Levant in at least the third millennium BC. Phoenicians did not refer themselves as "Phoenicians" but rather are thought to have broadly referred to themselves as "Kenaʿani", meaning ' Canaanites '. Phoenicians specifically identified themselves with

10000-442: Was the leading city; it was a center for bronze-making and the primary terminus of precious goods such as tin and lapis lazuli from as far east as Afghanistan . Sidon and Tyre also commanded interest among Egyptian officials, beginning a pattern of rivalry that would span the next millennium. The Amarna letters report that from 1350 to 1300 BC, neighboring Amorites and Hittites were capturing Phoenician cities, especially in

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