Herodotus describes the Phoenicians as beginning
Soon after their settlement to occupy themselves ill dis- tant voyages (i, I). From the construction of rude ratts. they must -pee, lily have reached to a style of substantial ship-building. Their commercial vessels are represented either as long in shape, and fitted both for sailing and being rowed with fifty oars— ••ship- of Tarshish;" or as rounder in form, and more capacious in stowage, but slower in speed— tubs or coasting-ves- sels— bearers of cargo on short voyages. Kenophon (Economics, viii) passes a high eulogy on a Phoeni- cian ship -the greatest quantity of tackling was dis- posed separately in the smallest stowage." Their mer- chantmen also carried arm- for defence, and had fig- ures on their prows, which the Greeks named iraraucoi. Tie \ steered U the Cynosure, or the last star in Ursa .Minor; and they could cast reckonings, from the com- bined application of astr my and arithmetic (Strabo,
xvi, 2, 24). This nautical applicatil I astronomy is
ascribed by Callimachus to L'hales, a Phoenician by de- ••'. ed. Blomfield, p. 213; Diog. Laert. Thales). Lebanon supplied them with abundance of timber, ami Cyprus gave them all necessary equipments, from the keel to the topsails - "a fundamento ipso carina .-el bu-
premos ipsos carbasos" (A i. Marcell. xiv, 8 14).
I iring Phoenician navigators in the reign of
Pharaoh - Necho circ avigated Africa departing
from the lied Sea and returning by the Strait ol Gib- raltar. lle\ reported thai in sailing round Libya they had tie- sun on their right hand- a Story of which II.--
rodotus Bays, "I, for my pari, do not believe them." and yet ii is tie- positive proof th.-n they had gone round the < ape i Herod, iv, 12). Diodorus speaks also of Phoenician mariners being driven westwards beyond the Pillars of Hercules into the ocean, ami reaching at length a verj fertile and beautiful island "a dwelling itherthan of men" one probablj ol the Azores or Canarj Islands. The Phoenicians furnished to Xerxes
800 -hip-. Km they wire defeated al Salami-. Ii i-
said thai of all the nation- employed in digging the fa- mous canal across ll.e i-thmiis ol AthOB, tie _\ alone had
sufficient engineering skill to begin ii- hanks on their
-eel ion al a -lope, and tlm- prevent Caving in ivii. ■_':!). The remote period- of Phoenician commerce and colon- ization tire wrapped in myths. Phoenician -hips may have tir-t carried the produce of Assyria and Egypt — Inn their own ware- and manufactures wen- Boon largely exported by them (Ezek. xxviii). The commerce of Tyre reached through the world (Strabo, iii. 5, 11). There was also a ureal trade in tin- tunny li-lu lie-, and
i he Tyrians -old fish in Jerusalem i Neh. xiii, l'i i. Phoe- nicia excelled in the manufacture of the purple 'Uv ex- tracted fr the shell-fish murex, so abundant on parts
of ii- coasts. This color in its richest line was at length
appropriated to imperial n-e. and the -ilk SO dyed was
of extraordinary value. The glass of Sidon was no less
ii i- than He- Tyrian dye tin- tine white -and used
for tin' process being very abundant near Mount ( arm. 1. Glass has been found in Nineveh, and glass-blowing is figured al Beni-Hassan in Egypt. The an might have come from Egypt, but the discovery in Phoenicia is rep- resented as accidental. The pillar of emerald shining brightly in the night, which Herodotus speaks of as
hem- in the temple of I lerciile-. w as probably a hollow- cylinder of glass with a lamp within it (Keiirick, Pkce- nicia, p. 249). Phoenicia produced also drinking-cups of silver and gold. Homer describes sidon as abound- ing in works of brass. Its building-stone was not of
very good quality, hut cedar-" I was largely em-
ployed. When -tone was used the joints were bevelled a practice which af-o characterizes Hebrew architect- ure, and eives ii a panelled appearance. The mining operations of the Phoenicians were also celebrated. Herodotus says they turned a mountain over iv ry -V ; n/o~£( — in the search for gold. Mines were wrought in the various colonies — in the Grecian island- and in Spain by processes much lie- same as those employed
in more modern times. The marine knowledge and
experience of Phoenicia led to the plantation of nu- merous colonies in Cyprus. Rhodes, Cilicia, and the isl- ands of the iEgean — the Cyclades and Sporades (Thu-
Cyd. i. * ) in Sicily, in Sardinia, tie- Balearic l-lauds. and iii Spain. Strabo says that the Phoenicians pos- sessed the best pans of Iberia before the days of Homer iii. 22, 111. ( )ne principal colony was in Northern Af- rica, and Strabo asserts that they occupied the middle part of Africa soon after the Trojan war. The story of Dido and the foundation of Carthage i- well known, the event being placed by some in B.C. 813. Byrsa, the
n a of the hill on which the city was built, denotes a
fortress, being n~^2 (Bozrah), the name al-o of the Idumsean capital: though its Greek form. Bvpaa, gave rise to the story aboul the purchase of as much land as a hide would measure. Carthage means "new town" (Flttnn Hip), and Punici is only another spelling of Pkoenici. Intercourse with many Btrange and untutored race- led i he Phoenicians to indulge in fictions; and love • •i .nil taught them mercantile deceits and stratagems. " Phoenician figment" \ptvapa Qmvuukov oratravel- ler'stale, was proverbial in former times, like fides Punica at a later period i Strabo, xii. p. 55). The / fi Magnum bluntly defines foivixiKov by rd lftvdoc, tin- lie. In the Odyssey they are described as "crafty" vav- oiicXvTot (Odyss.x'ii'i, 115), or as "crafty and wicked."