It will thus be seen that the length of coast to which the name Phoenicia was applied varied at different times, and may be regarded under different aspects before and after the loss of its independence. (1.) What may be termed Phoenicia proper was a narrow undulating plain, extending from the pass of Ras el-Beyad or Abyad, the " Promontorium Album" of the ancients, about six miles south of Tyre, to the Nahr el-Auly. the ancient Bos- trenus, two miles north of Sidon (Robinson, Bib. Pes. ii, 473). The plain is only twenty-eight miles in length, and, considering the great importance of Phoe- nicia in the world's history, this may well be added to other instances in Greece, Italy, and Palestine, which show how little the intellectual influence of a city or state has depended on the extent of its territory. Its average breadth is about a mile (Porter, Handbook for Syria, ii, 396) ; but near Sidon the mountains retreat to a distance of two miles, and near Tyre to a distance of five miles (Kenrick, Phoenicia, p. 19). The whole of Phoenicia, thus understood, is called by Josephus (Ant. v, 3, 1) the great plain of the city of Sidon (to piya mciov Siddh'oc iroXtwc). In it, near its northern ex- tremity, was situated Sidon, in the north latitude of 33° 34' 05"; and scarcely more than seventeen geograph- ical miles to the south was Tyre, in the latitude of 33° 17' (admiral Smyth's Mediterranean, p. 469): so that in a straight line those two renowned cities were less than twenty English miles distant from each other. Zarephath, the Sarepta of the N. T., was situated be- tween them, eight miles south of Sidon, to which it be- longed (1 Kings xvii, 9 ; Obad. 20 ; Luke iv, 26). (2.) A still longer district, which afterwards became fairly entitled to the name of Phoenicia, extended up the coast to a point marked by the island of Aradus, and by Antaradus towards the north ; the southern boundary remaining the same as in Phoenicia proper. Phoenicia, thus defined, is estimated by Mr. Grote (Hist, of Greece, iii, 354) to have been about one hundred and twenty miles in length ; while its breadth, between Lebanon and the sea, never exceeded twenty miles, and was gen- erally much less. This estimate is most reasonable, al- lowing for the bends of the coast ; as the direct differ- ence in latitude between Tyre and Antaradus (Tortosa) is equivalent to one hundred and six English miles; and six miles to the south of Tyre, as already men- tioned, intervene before the beginning of the pass of Ras el-Abyad. The claim of this entire district to the name of Phoenicia rests on the probable fact that the whole of it, to the north of the great plain of Sidon, was occupied by Phoenician colonists; not to mention that there seems to have been some kind of political connection, however loose, between all the inhabitants
PHOENICIA
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(Diodortis, xvi. 41). Scarcely Bixteen geographical miles farther north than Sidon was Berytus; with a roadstead bo well Baited for the purposes of modern navigation that, under the modern name of Beirut, il has eclipsed both Sidon and Tyre as an emporium t"«>r Syria. Whether this Berytus was identical with the Berothah and Berothai of Ezek. xlvii, 16, and of 2 Sam. viii. 8, is a disputed point. Still farther north was Byb- lus, the Gebal of the Bible (Ezek. xxvii, 9), inhabited In - amen and calkers. 1 1 ^ inhabitants are supposed to be alluded to in the word Giblim, translated "stone- Bquarers" in the A. V. of 1 Kings v. is (32). It still retains in Arabic the kindred name of Jebeil. Then came Tripolis ( now Tarabulus I, said to have been found- ed by colonists from 'lyre. Sidon, and Aradus, with three distinct towns, each a furlong apart from one another, each with its own walls, and each named from the city which supplied its colonists. General meetings of the Phoenicians seem to have been held at Tripolis I Diod. xvi, 11 ). as if a certain local jealousy had prevented the selection for this purpose of Tyre. Sidon, or Aradus. Lastly, towards the extreme point north was Aradus it- self, the Arvad of <ien. x, 18 and Ezek. xxvii. 8, situ- ated, like- Tyre a small island near the mainland,
and founded by exiles from Sidon.
During the period of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelites, the Phoenicians possessed the following towns. which we will enumerate successively in the direction from smith to north: Dora ("111, Josh, xi, 2; xvii. 11 sq. i; Ptolemais (135, Judg. i, 33); Ecdippa p"'T=S, Josb.xix,29);Tyre(-llS,Josh.xix,29);Sarepta(P£r.S, 1 Kings xvii. 9 sip; Luke iv, 2G); Sidon ("JIT'S, Gen. .x. 15)5 Berytus (nnina, Ezek. xlvii. Id; 2 Sam. viii. 8 I:, blus (Saa, Josh.xiii, 5); Tripolis, SimyraC-iasn, Gen. x. 18); Arka ppiyfl, Gen. x, 17); Simna ("^DP, Gen. x. Id); Aradus pTl-iSP, Gen. x, 18). Comp. the respective articles on these towns. Sidon is the only Phoenician town mentioned in Homer (see Iliad, \i. 239; xxiii. 743; Odyss. xv, 415; xvii, 124).
3. Geographical Features. — The whole of Phoenicia proper is well watered by various streams from the ad- joining hills: of these the two largest are the Khasiml- yeh. a few miles north of Tyre— the ancient name of which, strange to say. is nol certain, though it is con- jectured to have been the Leontes — and the Bostrenus, already mentioned, north of Sidon. The soil is fertile. although now generally ill-cultivated ; bul in the neigh- borhood of Sidon there are rich gardens and orchards. The havens of Tyre and sidon afforded water of suffi- cient depth for all the requirements of ancient naviga- tion, and the neighboring range of the Lebanon, in its extensive forests, furnished what then seemed a nearly inexhaustible supply of timber for Bhip-building. To the north of Bostrenus, between that river and Beirut, Lies the only desolate and barren part of Phoenicia. It is crossed by the ancient Tamyras or Damuras. the mod- ern Nahr ed-Damur. From Beirut the plains are .-main fertile. The principal streams are the Lycus, now the