Instead of sailing west for glory, Phoenician settlers and traders meandered westward into Sicily, North Africa, and even the Iberian Peninsula (modern-day Spain) because of political necessity. We get exposed to the culture of the Phoenicians and their problems with larger Mesopotamian empires and bullies who threatened their existence. We begin in the Levant, the land of Phoenicia, and the city of Tyre. Richard Miles, an ancient historian and archeologist, provided a great introduction into Carthage back in 2010 with his book Carthage Must Be Destroyed. Their ships also sailed into the Atlantic before any Greek or Roman sailor did.
But what of Carthage? That city founded by Phoenician settlers and traders in North Africa, modern day Tunisia, lay further West than Athens or Rome. After all, those two civilizations gave birth to Western Civilization according to the standard narrative.
Greece and Rome hold pride of place in the Western imagination.
0 kommentar(er)
