PHENT'CIA (Gr. Phoinike, derived either from pkoino8, purple, or phoinix, paltn•tree both designations descriptivi of the chief produce of the country: the Hebrew term kenaan, lowblud, referring to its physical condition) is the name given by the Greeks and Romans to a certain territory situated about 34*-36° n. lat., bounded by the Mediterra nean on the by Syria to the n. and c., and .Judaea to the south. Except where the Mediterranean set a natural boundary, the frontiers differed widely at different periods, , s., and e., according to the gradual rise and decline of the country. Its length may be said to have been about 200 m.. while its breadth never exceeded 20 In., making a total of about :2,000 sq. miles. We may here mention some of the products of the soil, the exportation of which, to a certain extent, laid the foundation of her greatness. Pine, fir, cypress, cedars, terehinths, palm and fig-trees, sycamores, olive-trees, and acacias, crown the heights; while wheat, rye, and barley are found in the lower regions, together not only with ordinary fruit, but also with apricots, peaches, poniegranate.s, almonds, citrons, sugar-cane, grapes, bananas—all growing luxuriantly, and formingforest of tinely-tinted foliage. The land further yields silk and cotton, indigo and tobacco; and the modern inhabitants of Shur, like their forefathers of old, drive a profitable traffic with the produce of Mount Lebanon, its timber, wood, and charcoal Flocks of sheep and goats, and innumerable swarms of bees, supply meat, milk, and hooey. The sea furuished shoals of fish, and mollusks for the purple of Tyre. There are no precious metals found anywhere in Plienicia; but it is rich in iron, and the stone-quarries of Lebanon were already worked in Solomon's time.
The question of the origin of the Phenicians is one which has hitherto not been solved satisfactorily. Their own account, as preserved by llerodotus. speaks of their having immigrated from the "sea called Erythra; " a report further confirmed by another passage in his history, and by Justin. Strabo speaks of two islands in the Per sian gulf, called Tyros or Tylos and Aradus, in which temples were found similar to those of the Phenicians; and the inhabitants of these cities stated that the Phenicians had left them in order to found new colonies. The Erythrean sea, in its widest sense, extends from the eastern shores of Egypt to the western shores of India; and since Gen esis calls Canaan, the founder of the race, a descendant of Ham. not of Silent, some
investigators have come to the conclusion that the Persian or Arabian gulf is the original home of the Phenicians. Against this notion, however, weighty arguments have been brought forward, both from the genuine traditions of the people itself, as preserved, not In a corrupted Greek shape, but in their myths, in the biblical accounts, in their language, which even in its very oldest remnants(Canaan = lowland; Sidon = fishing. place; Clinics = mountain-people) is purely Semitic. It would be vague to speculate on the time at which the first Phenician settlers entered the country: as vague as to conjecture—the Erythrean sea being put out of the question—whence they came. So much seems certain. that they did not enter it from one region, but from several sid( s, and at various periods; and that only very gradually, in the course of long pre-historic centuries, they grew into one nationality, embracing the tribes that inhabited the sea coast, or Phenicia proper, from Sidon to Gaza, rind the cities n. of Sidonia. The latter term included the many separate states originally formed by the various genies, who again, originally, had their own political existence. laws, and even worship. Gradually, however, the larger communities extended their rules over the smaller ones, or rather combined with them for the formation of a more imposing and state. into which the different states were merged, without, however, giving up their own individual existence or cultus entirely. The most important of these special tribes or states were the inhabitants of Sidonia—a term, however, expressive both of the inhabitants of the city and of the whole country—the Tyrians, whose settlement, according to their own traditions, was prior to any other Phenician settlement (about 2,750 ac.): and Aradas, founded, according to the native traditions, by Arvadi, " the brother of Sidon." From these three tribes—of the Sidonians collectively—are to be distinguished the Giblites with their two sovereignties of Byblus and Berytns, who differed in many respects from the former, and who. it may be presumed, formed at first the ruling state of Phenicia, until they were brought under Sidonian dependency. Several smaller tribes or states are mentioned in scripture—Arke, Sin, Ilamath, cte.—bnt little is known about them.