Inscriptions, coins, topographical names pre served by Greek and Latin writers, names of persons and the Punic passages in the Poenulus of Plautus, all show conclusively that the Phoenician language belonged to the North-Semitic group, and to that sub-division of it which is called the Canaanite and includes Hebrew and the dialect of Moab. A comparison between Phoenician and Hebrew reveals close resemblances both in gram matical forms and in vocabulary; in some respects older features have been preserved in Phoenician, others are later, others again are peculiar to the dialect; many words poetic or rare or late in Hebrew are common in Phoenician. Hence we may conclude that the two languages developed independently from a common an cestor, which can be no other than the ancient Canaanite, of which a few words have survived in the Canaanite glosses to the Amarna tablets (written in Babylonian). But in forming an esti mate of the Phoenician language it must be remembered that our material is scanty and limited in range ; the Phoenicians were in no sense a literary people; moreover, except the inscriptions found at Gebal, now Jebeil, (loth century) and NSI. No. I I, most of the inscriptions are subsequent to the 6th century B.C.; the majority belong to the 4th century and later, by which time the language must have undergone a certain amount of decay. Indirectly, however, the Phoenicians rendered one great service to literature ; they took a large share in the development and diffusion of the alphabet which forms the foundation of Greek (Herod., v. 58) and of all European writing. The Phoenician letters in their earlier types are practically identical with those used by the Hebrews, the Moabites, and the Aramaeans of north Syria (NSI., Plates xii., xiii). They passed through various modifications in the course of time; after leaving the mother country the script acquires a more cursive flowing style on the stones from Cyprus and Attica ; the tendency becomes more strongly marked at the Punic stage ; until in the neo-Punic, from the destruction of Carthage (146 B.c.) to the Ist century A.D., both the writing and the language reached their most degenerate form. As a rustic dialect the language lasted in north Africa till the 5th century A.D. In his sermons St. Augustine frequently quotes Punic words. The oldest specimens of Phoenician writing at present known have been found at Gebal. In 1922 Montet un earthed the sarcophagus of Ahiram, incised with a Phoenician inscription in an archaic form of lettering, which bears a close resemblance to the inscription of Abi-baal, discovered some years ago on the same site.
The Phoenicians, in imitation of the Egyptians, claimed that their oldest cities had been founded in remote an tiquity ; but no certainty can be attached to the traditional chro nologies; e.g., Herod., ii. 44; Justin, xviii. 3; Menander in Jos., Ant., viii. 3, I and c. Ap., i. 18.
Phoenicia comes into history proper c. 1600 B.c., when the Egyptian empire began to extend in the direction of Asia under Ahmosi (Amasis) I. ; who carried his arms into Syria, and con quered at least Palestine and Phoenicia, the latter being the coun try called Da-hi on the Egyptian monuments (Muller, As. u. Eur., p. 181), Thothmes III.
repeated and consolidated the earlier conquest, and established Egyptian suzerainty over all the petty states of Syria and Phoenicia (see EGYPT: History. I.). For the geography and civilization of Canaan about 1400 B.C. we have valuable evidence in the Egyptian papyrus Anastasi I., which mentions Kepuna (Gubna, Gebal-Byblus) the holy city, and continues: "Come then to Berytus, to Sidon, to Sarepta. Where is the ford of Nat-'ana ( ? Nahr el-I5,asimiyeh, or a town)? Where is 'Eutu (?Ushu, Palaetyrus) ? Another city on the sea is called a haven, D'ar (Tyre) is its name, water is carried to it in boats; it is richer in fish than in sands." But the fullest informa tion about the state of Phoenicia in the 15th and 14th centuries B.C. comes from the Amarna tablets, among which are many let ters from the subject princes and the Egyptian governors of Phoenicia to the Pharaoh. It was a time of much political dis turbance. The Hittites (q.v.) were invading Syria; nomads from the desert supported the invasion ; and many of the local chiefs were ready to seize the opportunity to throw off the yoke of Egypt. The towns of Phoenicia were divided ; Aradus, Simyra, Sidon supported the rebellion; Rib-addi, the regent of Byblus, and Abi-melech, king of Tyre, held out for Egypt; but while all the towns made professions of fidelity, they were scheming for their own interests, and in the end Egypt lost them all except Byblus. The tablets which reveal this state of affairs are written
in the language and script of Babylonia, and thus show indirectly the extent to which Babylonian culture had penetrated Palestine and Phoenicia; at the same time they illustrate the closeness of the relations between the Canaanite towns and the dominant power of Egypt. After the reign of Amenophis IV. (1376-66) that power collapsed altogether; but his successors attempted to recover it, and Ramses (Rameses) II. reconquered Phoenicia as far as Beirut, and carved three tablets on the rock beside the Nahr el-Kelb (Gressmann, Texte u. Bader' ii. Pl. lxv.). In the reign of Ramses III. (c. 1200) many great changes began to occur owing to the invasion of Syria by peoples from Asia Minor and Europe, which ended in the establishment of the Philistines on the coast near Ashkelon. The successors of Ramses III. lost their hold over Canaan; the 21st dynasty no longer inter vened in the affairs of Syria; but Sheshonk (Shishak), the founder of the 22nd dynasty, about 928 B.C. endeavoured to assert the ancient supremacy of Egypt (cf. I Kings xiv. 25 sqq.), but his successes were not lasting, and, as we learn from the Old Testa ment, the power of Egypt became henceforward ineffective.
Between the withdrawal of the Egyptian rule in Syria and the western advance of Assyria there comes an interval during which the city-states of Phoenicia, owned no suzerain. Gebal had kings of its own, Ahiram, Itho baal, Abi-baal, in the loth century, as recent excavations have shown. The history of this period is mainly a history of Tyre, which not only rose to a sort of hegemony among the Phoenician states, but founded colonies beyond the seas (p. 769). From 97o to 772 B.C. the bare outline of events is supplied by extracts from two Hellenistic historians, Menander of Ephesus and Dius (largely dependent upon Menander), which have been preserved by Josephus, Ant., viii. 5, 3 and c. Ap., i. 17, 18. From the data given in these passages we learn that Hiram I., son of Abi-baal, reigned in Tyre from 97o to 936 B.C. The Tyrian annals, more over, alluded to the connection between Hiram and Solomon. Before this time, indeed, the Phoenicians had no doubt lived on friendly terms with the Israelites (cf. Judges v. 17; Gen. xlix. 13) ; but the two nations seem to have drawn closer in the time of Solomon. 2 Sam. v. 11, which brings David and Hiram to gether, probably antedates what happened in the following reign. For Solomon's palace and temple Hiram contributed cedar and fir trees as well as workmen, receiving in exchange large annual payments of oil and wine, supplies which Phoenicia must have drawn regularly from Israelite districts (I Kings v. 9, I I ; cf. Ezek., xxvii. 17; Ezr. iii. 7; Acts xii. 20; Jos., Ant. xiv. 1o, 6); finally, in return for the gold which he furnished for the temple, Hiram received the grant of a territory in Galilee (Cabul, I Kings ix. 10-14). This alliance between the two monarchs led to a joint expedition from Eziongeber on the Gulf of Akaba to Ophir ( ?on the east coast of Arabia, see Ophir) for purposes of trade. The list of Hiram's successors given by Josephus indicates fre quent changes of dynasty until the time of Ithobal I., priest of Astarte, whose reign (887-855) marks a return to more settled rule. In contrast to Hiram I., king of Tyre, Ithobal or Ethbaal is styled in I Kings xvi. 31 "king of the Sidonians," i.e., of the Phoenicians, showing that in the interval the kings of Tyre had extended their rule over the other Phoenician cities. Under Ethbaal further expansion is recorded ; Botrys north of Byblus and Aoza in north Africa are said to have been founded by him (Jos., Ant., viii. 13, 2) ; the more famous Carthage owed its origin to the civil discords which followed the death of Metten I. (c. 851), his next successor but one. According to tradition, Met ten's son Pygmalion (c.860-814) slew the husband of his sister Elissa or Dido ; whereupon she fled and founded Carthage (q.v.) in Libya (Justin, xviii. 4-6). At this point Josephus's extracts from Menander end, see Schrader, KAT., 3rd ed. 12G ff.).