Chapter 6
Of purple men and oil merchants
In the eleventh centuryBCEthe coastal Canaanites of the Levant arose from
the debris of the Late Bronze Age cataclysm with a vengeance. Henceforth
known by the name the Greeks gave them–the Phoenicians–they returned
to the sea doing what they did better than anyone of their age: sailing to
places hitherto unknown, buying where cheapest, selling where dearest, and
making boatloads of money. For a while, they were the master entrepreneurs
of the Mediterranean, answering the call for metals byfinding new sources
and creating new routes to replace those that had been disrupted. They
imported raw material, processed it in their workshops, and exported sumptuous
luxury products.
As before, the Phoenicians continued to live in independent city states.
The ancient port of Byblos revived as a center for the Egyptian trade, but
Egypt was not nearly so dominant as before, and the overly conservative
merchants of Byblos did not seize on new opportunities. Instead Tyre and
Sidon became the chief commercial centers, especially Tyre, which was built
on two islands joined together several hundred yards from the mainland. The
prophet Isaiah calls Tyre“the merchant of the nations”and“the bestower of
crowns whose merchants were princes.”Ezekiel concurs, noting,“You satis-
fied many peoples with your abundant wealth and merchandise, you enri-
ched the kings of the earth.” He lists 16 different places in which the
Phoenicians traded, from Tarshish in southwestern Spain to Sheba in south-
western Arabia and provides a catalogue of trade goods ranging from pre-
cious stones, ivory, ebony, and spices to metals, foodstuffs, livestock, wool,
and slaves. For the early centuries of thefirst millenniumBCE, Tyre could
justly claim Ugarit’s old title of greatest port in the Mediterranean and perhaps
the world.
In the tradition of their forefathers, the Phoenicians were excellent sailors
who enjoyed certain technical advantages centering on the development of
more seaworthy ships capable of long voyages. They were referred to in the
Bible as the“Ships of Tarshish,”meaning ships capable of sailing from one
side of the Mediterranean to the other. They developed the keel, allowing for
better control in rough seas, and used adjustable sails. According to Pliny,