Sidon -- Ancient History Encyclopedia

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Timeline

c. 4000 BC

Founding of the city of Sidon.
351 BC

Artaxerxes III sacks Sidon.
333 BC

Alexander the Great sacks Sidon.

Definition

Sidon is the Greek name (meaning 'fishery’) for the ancient Phoenician port city of Sidonia (also known as Saida) in what is, today, Lebannon (located about twenty five miles south of Beirut). Along with the city of Tyre, Sidon was the most powerful city-state of ancient Phoenicia and first manufactured the purple dye which made Tyre famous and was so rare and expensive that the color purple became synonymous with royalty. The area of Sidon was inhabited as early as 4,000 BCE and Homer, in the 8th century, notes the skill of the Sidonians in producing glass. Glass production made Sidon both rich and famous and the city was known for being very cosmopolitan and 'progressive’. The Princess Jezebel, who later would become Queen of Israel (as related in the Biblical Books of I and II Kings) was the daughter of the King of Sidon, Ethbaal in the 9th century BCE, and married King Ahab of Israel to cement ties between the two kingdoms. Sidon is considered the 'seat’ of the Phoenician Civilization in that most of the ships which would ply the seas and spread Phoenician culture were launched from this city’s port. Sidon was overthrown during the conquest of Phoenicia by Alexander the Great in 332 BCE and, like the rest of the fractured Phoenician civilization, was eventually absorbed by Rome.

Written by JPryst.

Articles

Jezebel: Princess of Sidon, Queen of Israel

Jezebel was the Phoenician Princess of Sidon (9th century BCE) whose story is told in the Hebrew Tanakh (the Christian Old Testament) in I and II Kings where she is portrayed unfavorably...
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