Phoenicians and clash with the Greeks

The Phoenicians-diplomacy and the clash with the Greeks

The most prosperous period of Phoenician history was that from 1000 to 800 BC approximately. Later the Phoenician cities – independent and autonomous, and therefore too weak and divided to offer a viable resistance to outside forces – were subject to large of the area: the Empire of the Assyrians ( 8th century BC), then the Babylonians and Persians. In their relations with their much more powerful neighbors the Phoenicians were juggled, taking advantage of the rivalry between these (in particular between Assyrians and Egyptians) in order to retain the maximum possible independence: tributes payouts, formal acts of submission and dynastic marriages – in a Word, all resources of diplomacy, rather than those of the war – were the means by which the rulers were skillfully use phoenixes in too harsh forms of foreign rule.

On the other hand, the free development of the commercial activities of the Phoenician cities was a valuable asset for the great Empires: for this reason the small Phoenicians' States managed always to enjoy a certain degree of autonomy.
In their maritime expansion, the Phoenicians came to clash with another seafaring people who had occupied the Aegean Islands and aspired to control trade routes: the Greeks.

In function to antigreece, the Phoenicians were therefore the most so the most loyal allies of the Persians, whose side fought in all the wars.
The prevalence of the Greeks over the Persians, so inevitably marked the end of the Phoenicians: grip and the complete destruction of Tyre by Alexander the great in 332 BC, after a ferocious siege which lasted a year, sanctioned the disappearance of Phoenician civilization as an autonomous entity.