Phoenice

Phoenice or Phoenike (Greek: Φοινίκη) was an ancient Greek city in Epirus and capital of the Chaonians. It was also the location of the Treaty of Phoenice which ended the First Macedonian War, as well as one of the wealthiest cities in Epirus until the Roman conquest. During the early Byzantine period, Phoenice was the see of a bishopric. The city is an archaeological park of Albania and is located on a hill above a modern town which bears the same name, Finiq, in modern southern Albania.

History

The city was the political center of the Chaones, one of the three major Greek tribes in ancient Epirus. From the second half of the 5th century BC, an acropolis was erected, which hosted a number of public buildings, while at the end of the next century the fortifications of the city were expanded as part of Pyrrhus's, leader of united Epirus, defensive strategy. The patron god of the city was probably Athena Polias. The walls of Phoenice consisted of massive blocks up to 3.60 meters thick, the Chaonians' primary concern being to defend the city against Illyrian attacks. In circa 233 BC, Queen Deidamia II, the last member of the Aeacid ruling dynasty, was assassinated, the monarchy was abolished in Epirus, and the city became the center of the federal government of the Epirote League.

Phoenice (Roman province)

Phoenice was a province of the Roman Empire encompassing the historical region of Phoenicia. After ca. 400 it was divided into Phoenice proper or Phoenice Paralia, and Phoenice Libanensis, a division that persisted until the region was conquered by the Muslim Arabs in the 630s.

Administrative history

Phoenicia came under the rule of the Roman Republic in 64 BC, when Pompey created the province of Syria. With the exception of a brief period in 36–30 BC, when Mark Antony gave the region to Ptolemaic Egypt, Phoenicia remained part of the province of Syria thereafter. Emperor Hadrian (reigned 117–138) is said to have considered a division of the overly large Syrian province in 123/124 AD, but it was not until shortly after ca. 194 AD that Septimius Severus (r. 193–211) actually undertook this, dividing the province into Syria Coele in the north and Syria Phoenice in the south.Tyre became the capital of the new province, but Elagabalus (r. 218–222) raised his native Emesa to co-capital, and the two cities rivaled each other as the head of the province until its division in the 4th century.

Phoenicia

Phoenicia (UK /fᵻˈnɪʃə/ or US /fəˈniːʃə/; from the Greek: Φοινίκη, Phoiníkē; Arabic: فينيقية‎, Fīnīqīyah) was an ancient Semitic thalassocratic civilization situated on the western, coastal part of the Fertile Crescent and centered on the coastline of modern Lebanon, Israel and Syria. All major Phoenician cities were on the coastline of the Mediterranean, some colonies reaching the Western Mediterranean. It was an enterprising maritime trading culture that spread across the Mediterranean from 1500 BC to 300 BC. The Phoenicians used the galley, a man-powered sailing vessel, and are credited with the invention of the bireme. By their innovations in shipbuilding and seafaring, the Phoenicians were enabled to sail as far west as present-day Morocco and Spain carrying huge cargoes of goods for trade. They were famed in Classical Greece and Rome as 'traders in purple', referring to their monopoly on the precious purple dye of the murex snail, used, among other things, for royal clothing, and for the spread of their alphabets, from which almost all modern phonetic alphabets are derived.