Phoenicia

Phoe·ni·cia  (f-nsh, -nsh)

An ancient maritime country of southwest Asia consisting of city-states along the eastern Mediterranean Sea in present-day Syria and Lebanon. Its people became the foremost navigators and traders of the Mediterranean by 1250 b.c. and established numerous colonies, including Carthage in northern Africa. The Phoenicians traveled to the edges of the known world at the time and introduced their alphabet, based on symbols for sounds rather than cuneiform or hieroglyphic representations, to the Greeks and other early peoples. Phoenicia's culture was gradually absorbed by Persian and later Hellenistic civilizations.

Thesaurus

Noun

1.

Phoenicia - an ancient maritime country (a collection of city states) at eastern end of the Mediterranean Phenicia Phoenician - the extinct language of an ancient Semitic people who dominated trade in the ancient world Carthage - an ancient city state on the north African coast near modern Tunis; founded by Phoenicians; destroyed and rebuilt by Romans; razed by Arabs in 697 Utica - an ancient city on the north coast of Africa (northwest of Carthage); destroyed by Arabs around 700 AD Ashtoreth, Astarte - an ancient Phoenician goddess of love and fertility; the Phoenician counterpart to Ishtar Dagon - god of agriculture and the earth; national god of Philistines