The Entire History of the Phoenicians | The Rise and Fall

There was never a country called Phoenicia, yet these scattered rival cities left a deeper mark on the modern world than Babylon. This video follows them from Abi-Milki's desperate letters to Pharaoh Akhenaten, through the cedar trade of Byblos and the Amarna letters, to how the little coastal cities survived the Late Bronze Age collapse. We see Tyre rise under Hiram I on the back of cedar and murex purple, and Carthage founded in the legend of Dido and the oxhide. Then the empires arrive: Assyria, Nebuchadnezzar's thirteen-year siege, Persia, Alexander's causeway in 332 BC, and Rome's destruction of Carthage in 146 BC. What survived all of it was a 22-letter merchant's alphabet that became Greek, Latin, Cyrillic, Hebrew and Arabic. 00:00 Tyre, 332 BC and a Letter in Clay 02:35 There Was Never a Phoenicia 04:46 Byblos and the Cedar Trade 07:35 Bronze Age Collapse and the Alphabet 09:55 Tyre Rises: Hiram and Purple 13:15 Dido and the Founding of Carthage 14:58 Assyria to Alexander's Causeway 17:37 Carthage Falls, the Letters Live On #Phoenicians #AncientHistory #Carthage #Alphabet #AncientCivilizations