[fi-nish-uh, -nee-shuh] 
| an ancient kingdom on the Mediterranean, in the region of modern Syria, Lebanon, and Israel. |
| Phoe·ni·cia (fĭ-nĭsh'ə, -nē'shə) An ancient maritime country of southwest Asia consisting of city-states along the eastern Mediterranean Sea in present-day Syria and Lebanon. Its people became the foremost navigators and traders of the Mediterranean by 1250 B.C. and established numerous colonies, including Carthage in northern Africa. The Phoenicians traveled to the edges of the known world at the time and introduced their alphabet, based on symbols for sounds rather than cuneiform or hieroglyphic representations, to the Greeks and other early peoples. Phoenicia's culture was gradually absorbed by Persian and later Hellenistic civilizations. |
An ancient nation of the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its territory included what are today coastal areas of modern Israel and Lebanon. The Phoenicians were famed as traders and sailors. They developed an alphabet that was eventually adapted by the Greeks and Romans into the alphabet used in writing English. In the Phoenicians' alphabet, the marks stand for individual sounds rather than for whole words or syllables, as in Egyptian hieroglyphics.
Phoenicia
(Acts 21:2). (See PHENICIA.)
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