Phoenicians & Lydians

Where in the world?

Who were the Phoenicians?

• A loose union of city states.

• Each governed by a different king.

• Hills and mountains but little fertile land.

• Phoenicians turned to the sea rather than inland.

Ships

• Small and fragile by our standards but sailors were skilled.

• Propelled by sails & oars

• Tyre & Sidon are both world famous seaports

Empire

Trade

• One natural resource….wood Lebanese cedar.

• Many ancient peoples used this for building.

• Skilled in metal working (probably learned from the Egyptians.

• They were also skilled in glassblowing

Achievements

• The Alphabet• Needed in order to trade effectively.• Model for later western alphabets

Phoenician Purple!

• Came from a shell fish called murex which gave a purple dye….

• Very expensive!

• Became the chosen color of the rich and famous.

• Kings wore this and it became known as royal purple

Murex – snails used to produce a purple dye

Byblos - Phoenician city

Culture & Religion

• They imitated the cultures of other people.

• They patterned their govt. after the Egyptians & Babylonians.

• They spread these cultures throughout the Mediterranean by trading… cultural diffusion!

• Religion• Polytheistic• Didn’t believe in the afterlife• Sacrificed their children to their

many gods

Swastika Crosses on the dress of a Phoenician

sun-princess carrying sacred Fire

Polytheists who believed in angry gods called baals.They did not believe in an afterlife and used human

sacrifice to appease their gods

The Lydians

Apadana - Persepolis

Lydian empire in what is now Turkey

Money

The Lydians were the first people to use coined money to set prices when trading

Before them traders had to use the barter system

According to Herodotus the Greek Historian

• After Cyrus the Great conquered Sardis the capital of Lydia, looting and pillaging began in the city

• Croesus is believed to have commented to Cyrus about what the troops were doing

• Cyrus replied that they were looting Croesus’ city

• Croesus responded that the city was no longer his and they were looting Cyrus’ city

• As the story goes, Cyrus had Croesus placed on a pyre to burn him alive

• Cyrus then regretted his act before it was too late

• He had the pyre extinguished and later made Croesus his adviser