Abstract

For Greeks and Romans the word ‘Phoenicia’ could mean many things. For the Roman geographers it was a coastal strip reaching from todays island of Ruad in Syria down to Ashkelon in Israel and included the famous cities of Beirut, Sidon, and Tyre in modern Lebanon. For historians it was the area, which Alexander the Great had conquered in 332 BC and Hellenistic kings fought over in numerous wars for its possession. For mythographers it was the home of princess Europe who had been stolen from the seashore by the bull-shaped Zeus; of Dido, the foundress of Carthage; and of Kadmos, a hero who brought the alphabet to Greece. The prominence of the region in Greek and Roman literature raises two fundamental questions: Did ‘Phoenicia’ have any meaning for the inhabitants of these coastal communities or for their neighbours? And from where did the term ‘Phoenicia’ originate?