The Levant

Although the Phoenicians are foremost associated with maritime trading in the Mediterranean, their economy was also firmly connected with their immediate neighbors in the Levant. With only few exceptions, the Phoenicians did not politically expand into their neighboring territories and confined their involvement to economic exchange. Their interactions with the Levant intensified after the late tenth century BCE and culminated in the eighth and seventh centuries BCE. This extraordinary development was followed by a devastating crisis in the neo-Babylonian period during the sixth century BCE. The Phoenician economy of Tyre, Sidon, Byblos, and Arwad emerged from this nadir in a remarkable rise during the Achaemenid period, regaining and even surpassing its earlier economic growth and cultural influence in the region.