Podcast Summary: The Phoenicians – Everything You Wanted to Know

History Extra Podcast
Host: Emily Briffett
Guest: Josephine Quinn (Professor of Ancient History, University of Cambridge)
Release date: September 13, 2025

Overview

In this captivating episode, historian Josephine Quinn joins host Emily Briffett to answer listener questions and offer a wide-ranging introduction to the Phoenicians, the influential but often overlooked seafarers of the Eastern Mediterranean. The discussion covers the origins, identity, archaeology, extensive trade networks, culture, and the enduring legacy of the Phoenicians, delving into why their achievements have been neglected in popular history and what their story can teach us today.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Who Were the Phoenicians?

• Phoenicians were inhabitants of ancient port cities along the Eastern Mediterranean coast, in what is today Lebanon (Tyre, Sidon, Byblos, and others), dating back to the Bronze Age (~4,000 years ago) [02:57].
• Overlooked in mainstream ancient history due to the focus on Greece and Rome, they were “extraordinary navigators,” foundational traders, and city-builders before Greek or Roman ascendancy [02:57].

“They discovered the Pole Star, they founded all sorts of settlements in the Western Mediterranean before the Greeks were sailing around.”
– Josephine Quinn [02:57]

• Their “classic era” runs from ca. 1000 BCE to 500 BCE; later, the focus of their civilization shifted west, primarily to Carthage [03:38-05:36].

Origins and Population

• Originated from local Levantine populations; legends like Tyre’s supposed Persian Gulf origin are more myth than fact [05:42].
• By the time their cities colonized the western Mediterranean, they had become highly cosmopolitan, as reflected by recent DNA evidence [05:42-07:00].

“There are actually very few people, apparently, on the evidence so far, very few people from the Levant in these ports. So they’ve become these incredible kind of cosmopolitan international centers.”
– Josephine Quinn [06:32]

Sources and Archaeology

• Major limitations: Scarcity of literary sources—either not much was written, or writings on papyrus did not survive due to the climate [07:10].
• About 10,000 inscriptions exist, but most are formulaic religious dedications.
• Archaeology is hampered because the port cities are now under modern cities, making excavations difficult [07:10-10:09].
• Main non-material sources: Greek authors, Roman authors, Assyrian records, and the Hebrew Bible [07:10-10:29].

“It’s a bit of a jigsaw with about three quarters of the pieces missing.”
– Josephine Quinn [09:12]

Identity: Did They Call Themselves "Phoenician"?

• They did not see themselves as ‘Phoenician’ but rather as citizens of their own cities (e.g., ‘sons of Tyre’, ‘sons of Carthage’) [10:29-12:07].
• The label "Phoenician" comes from Greek authors; it is a convenient outsider grouping, not a self-identity [12:09-13:29].

How Greeks & Romans Viewed the Phoenicians

• Early Greek and Roman views were often positive; the Phoenicians were regarded as ‘ancient and noble’.
• During wartime alliances (e.g., Phoenicians siding with Persia against Greek cities), negative portrayals increased [13:33-14:59].
• Carthage, as Rome’s rival, generated especially hostile Roman representations [13:33-16:29].

Carthage’s Significance

• Carthage was “hugely significant,” surpassing individual Greek city-states and even Rome in scale and power until its destruction [16:29].
• Carthage controlled much of Western Mediterranean trade, enforced maritime dominance, and built an empire in its own right [16:29-18:41].

“It really was their sea.”
– Josephine Quinn [17:52]

Maritime Skills and Trade Networks

• Phoenician seafarers solved key challenges in long-distance Mediterranean navigation, chiefly sailing westward against prevailing winds [19:05].
• Their trade networks eventually reached as far as Crete, the Aegean, and even the Atlantic coasts for tin and other metals, crucial in the Bronze Age economy [19:05-22:47].

Major Trade Goods

• Besides metals, they traded pottery (used as both trade goods and ballast), slaves (as indicated in the Hebrew Bible), and above all, textiles dyed with their famous purple dye (from sea snails) [22:42-25:21].

“These were the purple guys, the purple snail men.”
– Josephine Quinn [25:14]

Culture, Architecture & Art

• Phoenician architecture shows strong Egyptian influence in decoration, such as the distinctive “throat cornice” [25:31-29:00].
• House types with internal courtyards, extensive cosmopolitan styles due to wide contacts [25:31-29:00].

Relations Between City-States & Daily Life

• Phoenician cities functioned as independent entities, sometimes connected by religious ties or colonial relationships (Carthage as colony of Tyre) [29:00-31:47].
• Two ‘Phoenician worlds’ developed: a central (Carthage, Sicily, Sardinia) and a far-western (Morocco, Spain) sphere; Carthaginian imperialism eventually unified them [29:00-31:47].

Religion and Belief

• Their pantheon overlapped with those of other Near Eastern, Greek, and Egyptian religions—gods were often understood under multiple names (e.g., Ashtar/Ishtar/Aphrodite).
• Each city had a patron god (e.g., Melqart for Tyre) [32:12].
• Religion permeated daily life more as a background ritual than as intellectual belief—likened to the omnipresence of social media today [32:12-35:34].

“It’s more like, honestly, scrolling social media. It’s something that’s always there in the background.”
– Josephine Quinn [34:30]

Timeline and Major Moments

• Rise as vassal kingdoms in the Bronze Age, golden eras as independent city-states from 1000–500 BCE (East), then 500–146 BCE (West/Carthage).
• End in the destruction of Carthage by Rome (146 BCE), but language and culture persisted for centuries, up to St. Augustine’s time [35:34-38:31].

Their Legacy: The Alphabet

• The Phoenicians revolutionized writing with the development of the alphabet, later adopted and adapted by the Greeks and, from them, by much of the world [38:31-43:09].

“The alphabet… grows up in the Levant… and is used to write down these Levantine languages… And then finally… alphabetic letters are called by the rest of the people who live in that region—they’re called Tyrian letters.” – Josephine Quinn [38:41-43:09]

Why So Successful?

• Success attributed not to general ethnic cohesion, but to strategic city locations (Tyre and Carthage), defensible geography, and adaptability [43:31-44:52].

Why So Overlooked?

• Neglect stems largely from a lack of accessible literature (as opposed to Greek/Roman texts), educational priorities in the 19th century, and a degree of racism (anti-Semitism) against Semitic peoples [45:05-47:48].

“A lot of it does come down to which cultures were privileged because they were both legible and easy to teach in a particular historical moment… the Phoenicians were considered Semitic and there was an awful lot of anti-Semitism...”
– Josephine Quinn [45:05-47:48]

Final Pitch: Why Should We Care About the Phoenicians?

• The Phoenician model challenges modern assumptions about ethnicity and identity—flourishing without the need for overarching ‘national’ identity, showing the power of city-based allegiance and cosmopolitanism [47:58].

“The Phoenicians provide a really useful lesson in how strange modern ideas about the world are… you can have these big interesting city-states that don’t need to depend on a larger idea of heritage…”
– Josephine Quinn [47:58]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the lack of textual sources:
  “It’s a bit of a jigsaw with about three quarters of the pieces missing.” [09:12]
• On Phoenician cosmopolitanism and DNA:
  “There are actually very few people, apparently, on the evidence so far, very few people from the Levant in these ports. So they’ve become these incredible kind of cosmopolitan international centers.” [06:32]
• On Carthage’s naval dominance:
  “It really was their sea.” [17:52]
• On ancient religion:
  “It’s more like, honestly, scrolling social media. It’s something that’s always there in the background... Probably a better metaphor than going to church.” [34:30]

Important Timestamps

| Timestamp | Segment | |-----------|------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 02:57 | Who were the Phoenicians—their scope and historical context | | 05:42 | Origins and early migration | | 07:10 | Challenges of archaeological and written sources | | 10:29 | Identity—did they call themselves Phoenician? | | 13:33 | Greek and Roman perspectives | | 16:29 | Carthage’s significance in Mediterranean history | | 19:05 | Why the Phoenicians became master seafarers and traders | | 22:47 | Major goods traded | | 25:31 | Architecture, culture, and art | | 29:00 | Interactions between city-states and regional identities | | 32:12 | Religion, gods, rituals & the meaning of "belief" | | 35:34 | Main events and turning points in Phoenician history | | 38:41 | Their legacy in the development of the alphabet | | 43:31 | Explaining their city-level “successes” | | 45:05 | Why the Phoenicians are so overlooked | | 47:58 | The modern lesson: identity and heritage |

Conclusion

Josephine Quinn’s expert guidance reveals the Phoenicians as dynamic, innovative, and cosmopolitan players in the ancient world—navigators, traders, and cultural connectors who helped shape Western civilization, yet remain overlooked due to gaps in the historical record and enduring biases. Their story invites us to question how we define heritage, belonging, and cultural achievement.

Recommended for: Anyone interested in ancient history, forgotten civilizations, the development of writing, and the enduring complexities of cultural contact and identity.

For more by Josephine Quinn:

• How the World Made the West
• In Search of the Phoenicians