the following takes place betweenyear 5000 and 146 bc but that is another story fenicia and carthage the beginnings of fenicia the canaanites were very versatile. this semitic ethnic group who lived mostly in the land of canaan gave rise to many different peoples, like the acadians, the arameans, hebrews, arabs and phoenicians. the phoenicians were nothing more than a group of these canaanites settled over 7000 years ago in the coastal strip of what is now lebanon. they considered themselves "chanani", ie canaanites. the distinction of phoenicians created the greeks, who called them so, phoinikes, because it means purple. the phoenicians were famous for a dye or tint of this color extracted from a mollusc called murex. with it dyed clothes and decorative items such as glasses and jewelry. in roman times the name would result in punic, more to refer to his most famous colony carthage. but we do not go so fast.
let's start with the year 5000 bc, when a group of these fishermen canaanites decided to create a small village on the mediterranean coast: gebal. the place was located on a narrow strip between the sea and the mountains and the desert, with little room to grow, so they were forced to adapt to the marine environment and develop good navigation systems. still grown far as wheat, grapes, olives, figs and even had date palms. goats or sheep grazed also. but what really began to make good business was something that had neither the egyptians nor the sumerians south east: wood. cojonuda a cedar wood. eventually they founded a few more cities like ugarit, and began trading with peoples of cyprus and crete, and especially the egyptian pharaohs, who were his favorite customers. in exchange for their timber, the egyptians gave them something the phoenicians loved: the papyrus sheet. gebal became a kind of mall where buying this medium for writing, and was called byblos by the greeks. biblion is book in ancient greek and hence derived words like library or the bible. in fact, it was in biblos where the first bible was written on papyrus. you could also find metals, fabrics, the famous purple dye, incense, oils, resins, pottery, art, wine or fish ...
"vamo 'girl to buy, vamooooo" the phoenicians were ready, and copied everything they saw on their trips, and learned different techniques to make highly original products and never seen. and these little trips took place thanks to its modern biremes boats and their knowledge of the sky. as it had not yet invented the compass, they were guided using the lodestar of the time, alpha draconis, which they called phenicia star. they created sea routes, mostly along the coast, and built ports wherever they came, which became the great merchants of the time. they were not yet in a position to begin an intense colonization of time were content to establish his people in city neighborhoods to mount bars, bazaars or warehouses. they also created well protected factories, especially in barbarous countries, for bartering. later evolve barter and payment would be based on gold or silver bullion, fixed weights, and already around 600 bc using the currency would strengthen. "professional ... very professional"
both biblos as ugarit, and other cities that appeared later as sidon and tire, were independent city-states. there never was a phoenician unified state. in each city there was a king who had no absolute power, because it was pretty controlled by an oligarchy of traders in a council of elders representing the most powerful families in the city. there were priests who worshiped the phoenician gods in temples. gods were many. the main one was the, and baal or astarte. many changed depending on the city as melkart, god of tire, or eshmun, sidon. it seems that you had to make human sacrifices or rites of prostitution. the acadians left them more or less at peace when sargon came to power in 2334 bc and soon got to be protected from the egyptians, who defended them from the hittites and amorites tribes. these cause enough problems for a while. around 1500 bc the hyksos reached the egyptian delta, it is not known if they were canaanites and phoenicians and other peoples, but after passing through the land of the pharaohs, the new dynasty decided to control more tightly the levant area. the phoenicians were confined to bow his head as the new kingdom pharaohs were knocked against hittites and mitanos hosts. the phoenicians were in the middle fucking. "remove"
booming sidon and tire many of the phoenician cities ended in ruins, like ugarit, byblos, tire and arvad. sidon was saved and became the most important city in the area. sidon rebuilt many of these cities and created others like berytus, now beirut, and acre. center important activity was kition in cyprus, ciprus, which means copper in greek, the abundance of this metal. rhodes and cilicia also had their importance in trade. and so they set up a colony in memphis. new enemies were emerging, although trading opportunities. by using caravans, phoenicians products imported from these sites as spices, wines, oils, perfumes and fabrics. african metals, especially gold, and papyri, slaves, skins, ostrich feathers, incense or ivory. trade with europe was largely maritime, and getting various metals such as tin, silver or iron, wool, cattle and many different types of cereals. and they discovered that salt was magnificent to preserve food during their long journeys by boat, and out came a delicacy called garo.
the big problem came in 1200 bc with the sea peoples, which disrupted everything. the philistines settled in gaza and, after the fall of the hittites, aramaean tribes took advantage and settled in syria. sidon was destroyed and its hegemony became the city of tire, a city built on an island off the coast, easy to defend. it is here, under the reign of king hiram i, when the splendor of phenicia begins. trade expanded to other markets thanks to the colonization of more distant territories and the invention of something as cool as the phoenician alphabet, which would lead to the latin, greek, hebrew, aramaic or arabic. the phoenicians saw a need to simplify the writing, because both cuneiform and hieroglyphic or hieratic were too complex. 22 phonetic symbols and take the ass, without complications. that gave them an unrivaled reputation for the mediterranean. among his most famous colonies of the western mediterranean were gadir, now cadiz; or malaka, malaga, founded by the legendary god melkart navigator. in addition, hiram i was a close friend of the king of israel, solomon, who helped build the temple of jerusalem and endeavored to open a sea route through the red sea, to have contact with distant kingdoms of saba and ofir. these good relations were maintained even during the reign of ithobaal i, who married his daughter jezebel ahab made pagan rites introduced in israel, something that pissed off the prophet elijah.
some time later, his niece athaliah occupy the throne of judah and, as we saw in previous episodes, brown tangle. and as we saw, in 853 bc the assyrians come shalmaneser iii to touch the balls. shot stayed out during the battle of karkar, but that did not stop'd just having to pay tribute to assyria. the colony of carthage king mattan of tire had two important sons: pygmalion and elisa. i greedy pygmalion rose as king in 831 bc i wanted to get the treasures of a rich merchant named siqueo, so forced his sister elisa to marry him and pump him where he was hiding his wealth. elisa knew but deceived his brother, killed siqueo and she fled with all that was accompanied by his entourage and his sister ana in 825 bc women reach the african coast of present tunisia, where the libyan tribe of the gaetulians, ruled by king jarbas lived. according to legend, elisa asked for a piece of land to settle, and the king told him he would give much land as he could cover with a small piece of oxhide.
elisa then cut into strips and the skin with it formed the perimeter larger than could circulate and left libyan flipping. "did not you want coffee? well take 3 teapots" it was there where he raised the fortress of birsa and founded the city of carthage in 814 bc the indians started calling this queen elisa as dido. these carthaginians never disowned his hometown, shot, since they had the same traditions and worshiped the same gods, although they were better known as punic. they built temples to melkart, but ended up worshiping baal and tanit more. its expansion in the mediterranean started from the west. first the tunisian area, where they founded ãštica, and consolidating their power in mauritania (which is not the mauritania morocco but we know), and the region numidia, northern algeria. the port was built in cartago milk large with a rectangular port and one military civilian circular whose center was admiralty island. they elaborated various foods, glass, decorative items of pottery and ceramics, stained clothes, perfumes or cosmetics; and it was based on trade metals, precious stones, ivory, slaves and animals such as elephants. around the year 700 bc, the greeks colonized sicily, a city called rome appears in lazio, an italian region.
another region, etruria, the cradle of the etruscans, was more advanced, and began trading with the carthaginians. these, in 653 bc, colonized an island which they called eibshim, the current ibiza, and also founded mozia in sicily. this clashed against greek interests, which had the colony of syracuse next door, and began fighting the carthaginians, who were allied with the etruscans. returning to levante, the king luli of shot, he surrendered after 5 years of siege by the assyrian sennacherib and fled to kition. the assyrians ended the phoenician power in the area. and if that were not enough, in 589 bc nabucodosonor ii he besieged the shot ithobaal iii. after 13 years of siege, he removed from power the phoenicians. carthage was left alone. "this is the wild west" general carthage magon i magã³nida founded the dynasty in 550 bc, and under his rule the colony queen of the seas became. yes, some greeks called foceos had settled in corsica to engage in piracy, and in the battle of aphasia, the carthaginians and etruscans doused them. with that avoided the greek breakthrough in the western mediterranean, the etruscans took control of corsica and sardinia carthage, called sardinia.
then they tried their luck with the greek colony of massalia, present marseilles, but the greeks ended rechazã¡ndoles. "date piro, vampire" cartago is also allied with the phoenician colony of gadir and together they brought down the kingdom of tartessos. to all this territory they called hispania. it is believed that by this time the colonial aspirations of carthage were highest, and dared to something that seemed impossible: through the pillars of hercules, formerly called columns of melkart, located in gadir and forming part of the shield of spain. these columns marked the end of the known world, and it was dangerous to venture beyond. but not for these sailors. it appears that hanno came to the gulf of guinea through the canaries, and himilcã³n until casitã©rides islands, is unclear whether they are the scilly british or the cies islands. "guys, what an adventure" in 490 bc the persian wars broke out between the greeks and the medo-persians. rey amãlcar magã³n, the rich family of the giscã³nidas, took advantage of the situation to take positions in sicily and incidentally make friends with the persians.
but gelo, ruler of syracuse joined all the hellenes of the island against invaders, and in the battle of hãmera were given the kick from almost the entire island. almost a century later the sicilian greeks led by dionysius i of syracuse rose against anãbal magã³n and neither he nor his successor, himilco ii, could stop him. in 387 bc the colony of mozia fell. mago ii failed to progress but mago iii, who finally managed to win the battle of dionysius cronium. "now, finally" phenicia, under persian rule, had regained much of its lost prosperity. trade had been reactivated and things were going very well, the persians were not as motherfuckers like the assyrians. but he came in 332 bc alexander the great, who also besieged tire and phenicia went to hell forever. that is to besiege comfortably first had to build a ground pass to the little island. in carthage, the hannã³nidas had seized power, but wars continued sicily. in 308 bc king bomilcar i attempted a coup toppling the council of elders, but it came out the backfire, they crucified him and the monarchy was abolished.
the romans, who had commanded the etruscans to take the ass around 300 bc: with the fall of this dynasty a kind of aristocratic oligarchy inspired by their new allies established they put a sufetes governed by two, or judges, elected annually senate. they proposed laws and the assembly ratified with votes. one hundred and four was also created as control system, and also had a popular assembly, which was basically controlled by the well-heeled. the alliance between rome and carthage made sense as their common enemy was alive: greece. the latest clash with this power took place between 280 and 275 bc when pyrrhus of epirus carthage tried to snatch their possessions in sicily. roma went for it and lost in the battles of heraclea and asculum, but with a significant cost for the greek troops. a pyrrhic victory, as it is called. eventually they killed him in the battle of benevento and the greeks, although still out there, no longer a problem. now they remained only in the mediterranean carthage and rome. "to take the ass. one less" the punic wars
rome wanted everything for her. it was in the year 265 bc when the mamertinos, renegades latin mercenaries who had assaulted mizzen by force, they began to annoy the king of syracuse, the greek hiero ii, who decided to throw them. but these were allied with rome and the greek allied with carthage hanno the great. the excuse that the romans needed. he started the 1st punic war. in it, hiero ii was submitted to the romans and they gave milks the carthaginians in battles like cape ecnomo, the largest naval battle of antiquity, or the battle of the egadi islands, after which carthage surrendered. his punishment was to leave sicily, hiero of syracuse respect and good compensation. "you think it we're going to raise your head?" in addition to carthage, he received a civil war called the mercenary war, that he had rebelao much punishment because they had not been paid. they were joined by disgruntled peasants and slaves. amãlcar barca was chosen to quell a revolt by far exceeded them in number. and the guy got it and was appointed official fucking master. roma took advantage of the commotion and took corsica and sardinia. amãlcar barca could not do anything with the mercenaries had enough, so they had to forget their mediterranean colonies. now focus its efforts in hispania, away from roman rule. there founded many cities like akra leuke, alicante.
his son, hasdrubal, created the colony and capital of hispania qart hadasht, which the romans called carthage nova, present cartagena, petada silver mines. in the year 226 bc, the cities of greek influence, ampurias and sagunto, sought help from rome before the punic expansion in hispania. both sides territory iberus divided by the river, the ebro were distributed. was hannibal, the famous general, son of amãlcar and ãbera, who besieged the city of sagunto, and hooked up here again, and broke the 2nd punic war. "ole balls these guys" in the absence of a fleet, hannibal began to border the mediterranean coast towards the alps, en route to rome with an army of 90,000 infantry, 12,000 cavalry and 37 elephants. along the way, apart from losing an eye, he was recruiting soldiers gauls opposed to rome, and even colonies pissed off. his army defeated the romans in ticino,trebia, lake trasimeno or the battle of ager falernus, among others. after the smart victory at the battle of cannae in 216 bc, hannibal finished immobilized at the gates of rome, but his victories were worth to him to form an alliance with filipo v of macedonia and jerome, king of syracuse.
however, its not attack rome in those years was used by the general scipio "the african", which took carthage and made gadir changed sides. he also reached numidia and instigated riots between libyan tribes against carthage. hannibal had no choice but to leave everything and return to the colony, losing against "african" in the battle of zama. "ahhh, pobrecito" again, the peace terms were harsh, such as reducing its entire territory, the independence of numidia and the impossibility of attacking the latter. poor hannibal was exiled to the seleucid empire led by antiochus iii the great. carthage and had no importance. still, there was a sector in rome not look kindly leave alive. this was the group of marcus cato, who insisted that he had to destroy what was left of it. and at some point in the year 150 bc., the numidians attacked carthage. these theoretically could not defend themselves, but they did, and rome came to fight in a 3rd punic war, and reduced to ashes and the colony survivors were sold as slaves. cato died a year earlier and stayed without seeing his dream fulfilled, but this disappeared carthage and rome took power around the mediterranean.