Table Of ContentHELLENISTIC
PHOENICIA
JOHN D. GRAINGER
CLARENDON PRESS, OXFORD
1991
Oxford UniversiryP ress, Walton Street, Oxford ox2 6nP
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©]. D. Grainger 1991
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the prior permissiono f Oxford University Press
British Library Cataloguingi n PublicationD ata
( Data available)
Library of CongressC atalogingi n PublicationD ata
Grainger,. John D., 193!r
HellenisticP hoenicial]ohn D. Grainger.
Includesb ibliographicalr eferencesa nd index.
r. Phoenicians. 2. Hellenism. I. Title.
DSB2.G73 1992
939' .,u--dc20
ISBN O-lfr81477o--8
Typeset by Butler and Tanner Ltd, Frame and London
Printed in Great Britain by
Bookc raft (Bath) Ltd
Midsomer Norton, Avon
CONTENTS
List of Maps
Vl
Abbreviations
Vll
Introduction
I
I. The Time of Troubles, 360-287 BC 5
2. The Ptolemaic Peace, 287-225 BC 52
3. Conquest, 225-193 BC 87
4. The Seleukid Peace, 19 3-1 29 BC 106
5. Autonomy and Independence, 12 9-64 BC 129
6. The Roman Take-over, 64-15 BC 159
7. Phoenicians Overseas 187
Index 221
LIST OF MAPS
Greater Phoenicia
I. 4
2. Akhaimenid Phoenicia 8
3. Phoenicia and Antiochos III 86
4. Phoenicia in the First Century BC 130
5. Phoenicians in the East 188
6. Phoenicians in the West 200
7. Phoenicians in the Aegean 204
ABBREVIATIONS
AAAS Annales ArcheologiqueAs rabes Syriennes
ANRW Aefstieg und Niedergang des Riimischen
Welt
ANSMN American Numismatic Society
Museum N ates
App., CW. Appian, Civil Wars
App., Syr. Appian, Syrian Wars
Arr., Anab. Arrian, Anabasis of Alexander
Austin M. M. Austin, The Hellenistic World
from Alexander to the Roman Conquest
(Cambridge r 98 1 )
Bagnall, PtolemaicP ossessions R. S. Bagnall, The Administrationo f the
Ptolemaic Possessions outside Egypt
(Leiden, r 976)
BASOR Bulletin of the AmericanS ocietyfo r Orien
tal Research
BCH Bulletin de CorrespondencHee llenique
Bellinger, 'End' A. R. Bellinger, 'The End of the Se
leucids', Transactionso f the Connecticut
Academyo f Arts and Sciences,3 8 ( 949)
1
J.
Betlyon, Mints W. Betlyon, The Coinagea nd Mints
of Phoenicia( Chico, Calif., 1982)
BMB Bulletin du Musee de Beyrouth
BMC Phoenicia G. F. Hill, Catalogue of Coins in the
British Museum: Phoenicia (London,
1910)
BMC SeleucidK ings P. Gardner, Catalogueo f Coins in the
British Museum: the Seleucid Kings of
Syria (London, 1878)
Brown ]. P. Brown, The Lebanona nd Phoenicia
(Beirut, 1969)
GIG CorpusI nscriptionumG raecarum
GIL CorpusI nscriptionumL atinarum
CIS CorpusI nscriptionumS emiticarum
C. ord. Ptol. M.-T. Lenger, Corpus des ordonnances
desP tolemees,2 nd edn. (Brussels, r 980)
Curtius Curtius Rufus, History of Alexander
Diod. Diodoros
Durrbach, Choix F. Durrbach, Choix d'inscriptions de
Delos (Paris, 192 1)
Abbreviations
Vlll
FGH F. Jacoby, Fragmente der griechischen
Historiker (Berlin and Leiden, 1923-
5 7)
Gjerstad, SCE E. Gjerstad, Swedish Cyprus Expedition
IV/2 (Stockholm, 1948)
Grainger, Cities J. D. Grainger, The Cities of Seleukid
Syria (Oxford 1990)
Head, H}{ B. V. Head, Historia Numorum (Oxford
I 9 I I)
Honigmann, 'Hist. Top.' E. Honigmann, 'Historische Topo
graphic von Nordsyrien in Altertum',
,<,DPV (1923)
ef
Houghton A. Houghton, Coins the Seleucid
ef
Empire from the Collection Arthur
Houghton (New York, 1983)
IC lnscriptionesG raecae
IGLS InscriptionsG recquese t Latines de Syrie
/GR R. Cagnat (ed.), InscriptionesG raecae
ad res Romanasp ertinentes
ef
JANES Journal Ancient }VearE astern Studies
]]{ES Journal efN ear Eastern Studies
Jones, CERP A. H. M. Jones, Cities ef the Eastern
Roman Provinces, 2nd edn. (Oxford,
1971)
Jos., A] Josephus, AntiquitatesJ udaicae
Jos., BJ Josephus, Bellum Judaicum
Kindler (ed.), Proc. A. Kindler (ed.), Proceedings of the
International Numismatic Convention,
Jerusalem 1963 (Tel Aviv, 1967)
Mace. Maccabees
Millar, 'Phoenician Cities' F. G. Millar, 'The Phoenician Cities:
A Case Study in Hellenisation', Pro
ceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical
Society ( 19 83), 55-7 r.
MUS] ,ifelanges de l'Universite Saint-Josephe
Newell, WSM E.T. Newell, TheCoinageefthe TVestern
SeleucidM ints (New York, 1941)
Nicolaou, /list. Top. Kition I. Nicolaou, flistorical Topography of
Kition, Studies in l\fediterranean
History, 43 (Goteborg, 1976)
NJIIM American Numismatic Society,
JVumismaticN otes and Monographs
OGIS \V. Dittenberger (ed.), Orientis Graeci
InscriptionesS electae( Leipzig, 1903)
Abbreviations
IX
Pliny, NH Pliny, Natural History
Plut. Plutarch
Pol. Polybios
RE Pauly, Wissowa, etal., Real-Encyclopadie
der classischenA ltertums-Wissensch.aft
Rev. Num. Revue Numismatique
Rey-Coquais, Arados J.-P. Rey-Coquais, Arados et sa peree
(Paris, 1974)
Rouvier J. Rouvier, 'Numismatique des villes
de Phenicie', Journal lnternationale
d' ArcheologieN umismatique 3, 4, and 5
(1902-5)
SEC SupplementumE pigraphicumG raecarum
Seyrig, 'Aradus' H. Seyrig, 'Aradus et sa peree sous Jes
rois Seleucides', Syria, 28 ( 195 1), 206-
17
Seyrig, 'Eres' H. Seyrig, 'Eres de quelques villes de
Syrie', Syria, 2 7 ( 1950), 5-50
St. Phoen. v E. Lipinsky (ed.), Phoeniciaa nd the East
Mediterraneani n the First Millenium
BC,
Studia Phoenicia,v (Louvain, 1987)
St. Phoen. viii C. Bonnet, Melqart, Mythes et Cultes de
l' Heracles tyrien en Mediterranee,S tudia
Phoenicia,v iii (Lou vain, 988)
I
TAPA Transactionsa nd Proceedingos f the Amer
ican PhilologicalA ssociation
ZDPV ,?,eitschrifftu r DeutscheP aldsteins Verein
ZPE ,?,eitschrifftu r Papyrologieu nd Epigrafik
INTRODUCTION
Explaining the title of a book may well be a mistake, for, if it
needs to be explained, should it not be changed? Nevertheless
I will essay here a justification of my title, for both of the words
in it pose problems.
Take 'Phoenicia' first. The place is known, even well
known-Tyre, Sidon, and so on. But what were its boundaries?
What is to be included, and what ignored? Should, for instance,
Carthage be included? The Rivista di Studi Fenici is full of work
on Carthage and Sicily and the west generally; D. B. Harden's
book The Phoeniciansd eals with both eastern and western groups.
This would suggest the inclusion of both; but, by the period I
am considering, the westerners can no longer be described as
Phoenicians, rather as Carthaginians. They have a distinctive
history, and so the westerners can be omitted. But then, what
of Cyprus? From Phoenicia, it is 'west', and it was an area of
colonial expansion, just as was North Africa, and yet the island
itself is obviously in the eastern Mediterranean. So Cyprus is
questionable. So also, therefore, must Palestine be a marginal
case, for there Phoenicians were similarly involved in a colonial
context. So, largely because their histories illuminate that of
the Phoenician homeland, both of these lands are included
as long as distinctively Phoenician political entities existed in
them.
Then there is that elastic term 'Hellenistic'. Like all artificial
historical terminology, the word can only be used loosely;
setting edges to it is dangerous. As an example, consider the
usual commencing date, 323 BC, marked by the death of Alex
ander the Great. This is an awkward, indeed a ludicrous break
point. Taken in a seriously objective way, either 325 or 320
would be better, the first marking Alexander's return from the
east and the start of his only serious attempt to rule his empire,
Introduction
2
the second marking the end of the brief attempt to keep that
empire in one piece. Neither of these, of course, is any real
improvement, for they all occur in the middle of the process of
Macedonian expansion and conquest. The start of that process
is the accession of Philip II in 359. As it happens, this is also a
much more convincing date for beginning a more or less self
contained historical era for Phoenicia, for in 360 began a series
of events which I have chosen to call, with acknowledgements
J.
to Russian history and A. Toynbee, the 'Time of Troubles'.
Thus, in this study the term 'Hellenistic' is used in a very
loose sense to indicate that period of time between the ending
of the Persian empire and the beginning of the Roman. Neither
of these 'events' has a clear, dat~ble beginning, and so I have
included in the study both the final generation of the Persian
period and the first half-century of the Roman. In chrono
logical, as much as in geographical, terms, the boundaries of
the study are fuzzy.
The Phoenicians have been the subject of a fascinating article
by Professor Fergus Millar, where he concentrates on the
problem of Hellenization. That article has been one of the
origins and inspirations of this study. In a larger study such
as this, however, Hellenization can only be one theme. The
Phoenicians were, and are, known above all as traders. Thus,
their economy has to be a second theme. Yet neither of these
can be understood without establishing a clear outline of the
political history of the cities, both as a group, and-much more
difficult-individually. This provides, therefore, the major
framework within which the other themes of trade and Hel
Ienization will be studied.
There are, of course, major problems of evidence in a study
of this sort, for no ancient source makes any attempt to tell
the story of the Phoenicians. Indeed, if there had been more
evidence, this would not be the first modern study of the Hell
enistic period in Phoenicia. Academic historians, like trufHe
hounds, only go to where there are traditional rewards to be
had. The absence of an ancient account of Phoenician history,
however, cannot be a reasonable excuse for failing to study the
subject. If it is important-as I obviously feel it is-it should
be studied, despite the shortage of evidence. And when one
looks at the information actually available, there is enough, as
