The Oxford Handbook of the Phoenician and Punic Mediterranean
Page 94
Hiram of Tyre
Phoenician seamanship and exploration would already have been well established when Solomon of Israel commissioned Hiram of Tyre to construct a fleet for him on the Red Sea, sometime in the second half of the tenth century (1 Kings 9:26–28), which sailed from the head of the Gulf of Aqaba to the wealthy land of Ophir, presumably somewhere on the Arabian or East African coast. More significant, however, is that every three years a Phoenician fleet was sent by Solomon to Tarshish (2 Chronicles 9:21). Tarshish is mentioned as a toponym nineteen times in the Bible (López-Ruiz 2009: 255–80), and suggestions for its location have ranged widely over the ancient world, from Iberia to India, including such well-known places as Tarsos in Cilicia or Etruria (whose inhabitants, the Etruscans, were the Tyrsenoi in Greek). Yet the best suggestion is that “Tarshish” is the biblical version of Greek Tartessos, the wealthy district of southwestern Iberia, a region of great importance in Phoenician exploration and settlement (cf. chapter 38, this volume). The biblical account, probably constructed a number of generations after the time of Solomon and Hiram, reflects the intensive Phoenician settlement in Iberian Tartessos of perhaps the ninth century (cf. chapter 6, this volume); it is thus possible that the story of regular expeditions between Phoenicia and Tarshish is from a slightly later era than that of the two kings, but has been thrown back into the time of the ideal and first Israelite king (see chapter 43, this volume). Yet the fact remains that by the Early Iron Age, Phoenician ships had gone the length of the Mediterranean and probably down the East African coast. The Greek tradition places the Phoenicians in Iberia and even beyond shortly after the Trojan War (Strab. 1.3.2)—or close to the time of Solomon and Hiram—but the biblical account implies that Solomon was making use of trade routes already well known. Archaeological evidence also suggests that the Phoenicians had reached Tartessos and coastal Portugal early in the first millenium bce (Belén Deamos 2009: 193–228).
Exploration in antiquity was largely a matter of economic expediency, not a search for new geographical knowledge, which nevertheless might accrue as a secondary benefit (Roller 2006: xvi–xvii). The Phoenicians, living in a handful of Levantine coastal cities with limited hinterlands, had minimal natural resources, and it was only reasonable that they would seek overseas trading opportunities that inevitably took them far from home into unexplored lands (for the Phoenicians’ expansion, see Aubet 2001). The luxury goods that Solomon acquired with Phoenician transportation reflect the economic basis of ancient travel to remote points: Tarshish produced gold, silver, ivory, and apes, and Ophir also yielded gold.
Early Activities in the Mediterranean
The Phoenicians were able to make such extensive journeys because of their skill in shipbuilding: they were preeminent in this for hundreds of years. Long after Phoenician political power had declined, their reputation as sailors was still so strong that Alexander the Great took their shipwrights on his expedition, making use of them on the Indus (Strab. 16.1.11; Arr. Anab. 6.1.6). Their ships were innovative, and by the end of the eighth century bce, the Phoenicians had invented the bireme, or two-banked galley (Casson 1971: 56–58; McGrail 2001: 129–34). Moreover, they were credited with early developments in navigation, such as the identification of constellations essential to seamen (Strab. 1.1.6).
The material evidence for Phoenician exploration in the Mediterranean remains elusive and difficult to analyze. Archaeological material can be scant, and the Phoenicians left no records of their travels except what has been preserved in Greek and Roman sources (on which see chapter 44, this volume). To a large extent, the literary record is a catalogue of places with known Phoenician settlement, often with no broad historical context. Yet the Greeks knew that the Phoenicians had made long sea voyages from early times (Hdt. 1.1), and it is clear that they were present in much of the Mediterranean, especially its western portions. This was a process that may have begun even toward the end of the Late Bronze Age after the decline of the Mycenaean sea power, which had absorbed that of the Minoans. The Mycenaeans had explored much of the eastern and central Mediterranean (even perhaps as far west as Iberia), and more certainly had dealings with southern Italy and Sicily, where mythology situated King Minos’s death (Roller 2015: 9). It is geographically reasonable that the first Phoenician outposts in the Mediterranean were on Crete, which lies due west of the Phoenician homeland and Cyprus. Phoenician-style metalwork of the ninth century has indeed been discovered on the island (Boardman 1999: 56–57). On their way to Crete, the Phoenicians may have “discovered” Rhodes, although the extant account is purely mythological (Diod. Sic. 5.58.2–3). Ancient Greek sources also situate the Phoenicians on the island of Kythera, northwest of Crete, off the coast of the Peloponnesus, where they allegedly established a Phoenician settlement that included a temple of Astarte, which evolved into a Classical shrine of Aphrodite (Hdt. 1.105) (but evidence of this has not been found archaeologically).
It might be expected, having reached Crete, that the Phoenicians would penetrate the Aegean, but the evidence is limited and vague (Papadopoulos 2011: 118–19). Herodotos suggested that they came to Argos in the Peloponnnesus (Hdt. 1.1), part of the same mythological context that brought them to Rhodes. Yet as early as the time of Homer, or somewhat before, Phoenicians were moving into the north Aegean, styled by the locals as brigands. One group landed on the island of Syria (Classical Syros, one of the Cyclades), where Ktesios was king, and they abducted his son with the complicity of his nursemaid, a Phoenician slave woman. The son, Eumaios, ended up in the service of Laertes of Ithaka (Hom. Od. 15.403–84). The tale is a self-contained narrative within the poem, and inevitably presents the Phoenicians at their worst, but it is the most complete early documentation of the Phoenicians on the move, more pirates than settlers, but leaving their traces in remote places and entering the Aegean by, probably, the ninth century bce.
It is presumed that there was also a Phoenician settlement on the northern island of Thasos, where a temple of Melqart was still visible in the fifth century bce, by that time identified with Herakles (Hdt. 2.44). Yet the Phoenician presence in the Aegean is generally thought to have been overall ephemeral (although sites such as Eleutherna in Crete may partly change this view; see chapter 32, this volume). Presumably the settlements there did not last or were assimilated into the expanding Greek population. Phoenician knowledge of the northern Aegean was presumably limited by the early occupation of the coasts of Anatolia by the Greeks and their colonization of the Black Sea, which they never seem to have entered.
The Western Mediterranean
The Phoenicians showed no interest in the Adriatic, either: its narrow entrance and an existing Etruscan population along its northern shore may have been deterrents. It is only beyond Italy that there is a density of settlement, beginning with Sicily, which had a number of Phoenician towns (Thucyd. 6.2.6); Sicily, like Crete, was on a line from the Levant to the western Mediterranean. There was also an early outpost on Melite (modern Malta), a good staging point for expeditions to the west; archaeological evidence supports the literary record (Diod. Sic. 5.12.3; Boardman 1999: 212). Melite’s companion island, Gaulos (modern Gozo), was also occupied.
Yet the Phoenicians avoided the Etruscan territory, both in the northern Adriatic and in the Mediterranean (Cary and Warmington 1963: 36), as well as the areas of Phokaian (Greek) interest, which means that they did not reach the northwestern Mediterranean (the modern southern French and northern Spanish coasts). It was northwest Africa, southern and western Iberia, and the western Mediterranean islands that became the heartland of western Phoenician culture (after the sixth century bce, commonly called “Punic”).
Thus by the tenth century, or slightly later, the Phoenicians began to establish settlements throughout the western Mediterranean (Aubet 2001; Carpenter 1958: 35–53). The earliest included Utica (Greek Ityke, in modern Tunisia) and Gadeira (Latin Gades, modern Cádiz) in Iberia (Vell. Pat. 1.2.3; Mela 3.46; Plin. HN 16.216). Eventually there were Phoenician
outposts in the Balearic Islands (Strab. 2.5.30) and on coastal Iberia from Abdera (modern Adra) through the Pillars of Heracles and along the Atlantic coast (Diod. Sic. 5.20, 35, Strab. 3.4.2) (cf. figure 42.1). Sardinia also came under their control (Boardman 1999: 212), although they do not seem to have settled on Corsica. Expeditions went beyond Gadeira and up the Atlantic coast of Iberia (into modern Portugal); this was perhaps as early as the ninth century bce, according to archaeological evidence from around the Tagus estuary (Arruda 2009: 113–30; cf. chapter 39, this volume). Eventually they came to the remote Kassiterides, the Tin Islands, whose location remains enigmatic but which may be off the coast of Brittany (Strab. 3.5.11). They also went south of the Pillars, reaching Lixos and Mogador (modern Essaioura, in Morocco) in perhaps the seventh century (Roller 2006: 12–14, 22–23; for the North African coast, see also chapter 41, this volume). But the most famous Phoenician outpost was Carthage (Greek Karchedon), not far from Utica. It was traditionally founded in 814 bce, although the date may be a generation or two later (Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 1.74.1; Boardman 1999: 211–12; cf. chapter 11, this volume).
Figure 42.1 View of the modern Straits of Gibraltar northeast from the African Side.
Source: Photo by Duane W. Roller
The Circumnavigation of Africa
The final instance of Phoenician exploration was the most astounding and the most enigmatic: a circumnavigation of the continent of Africa. The circumstances are known solely from a sparse report by Herodotus (4.42), but can be securely dated to the reign of the Egyptian king Necho (610–595 bce), who commissioned the voyage. Herodotus learned about it from an Egyptian source—a reference to the “northern sea” (Mediterranean) demonstrates this—and the expedition reflects the grandiose plans of the king, as well as a Phoenician interest in seeing if any connection could be made between East Africa (already known to them) and their settlements on the Atlantic coast of the continent. The journey was seen to be feasible because it was believed that Africa was much smaller than it was (Strab. 2.3.4–5; Roller 2006: 22–23).
The cruise—from the mouth of the Red Sea counterclockwise around to the Pillars of Herakles—took over two years, with the winters spent on shore, planting and sowing crops. Eventually the travelers reached a point where “they had the sun on their right.” These two facts give the greatest credibility to the journey, which would have reached 35 degrees south latitude. Herodotus’s account is straightforward, lacking personal touches or mythic encounters, further evidence that the expedition actually occurred. The voyage would have covered 20,000 km, yet the time of over two years is quite adequate, and there is no reason to believe that it did not take place, although critics from Herodotus’s to modern times have demonstrated unwarranted skepticism. Even if the continent were not fully circumnavigated, this source indicates the Phoenicians went well into the Southern Hemisphere, probably farther south than anyone else from Mediterranean antiquity. Nothing seems to have resulted from the expedition that benefited them, however; shortly afterward, the Phoenician homeland entered into a decline and the western cities became independent states. Despite the end of Phoenician exploration, the Carthaginians, and to some extent the Gaderenes, continued the tradition, with their efforts directed toward what might lie outside the Pillars of Herakles. The Phoenicians, however, with their original cities becoming merely local centers, turned their maritime talents to supplying ships for the Greeks, Persians, and others, participating in many of the great naval battles of Greek antiquity, most notably Salamis.
The Carthaginians
As the Carthaginians moved into the ascendancy, they expanded their inherited Phoenician territories, settling into Corsica and farther along the eastern Iberian coast. Interest in Corsica impacted on Etruscan territory, and a treaty was concluded defining their spheres of influence (Arist. Pol. 3.5.10). On the northern Iberian coast, the Carthaginians may have established some trading posts as far north as the Pyrenees. But these regions were hardly unknown, and the voyages to them do not rank as true explorations. Far more important were the expeditions sent forth around 500 bce north and south of the Pillars of Heracles. Two members of the Carthaginian ruling aristocracy, Hanno and Himilkon, commanded these cruises, the former to the south and the latter to the north (see map 42.1). A summary of Hanno’s report survives in a Greek translation of the fifth century (Roller 2006: 129–32); Himilkon, however, is only known through scattered sources, particularly the geographical poem of Avienus, Ora Maritima, from the fourth century ce (on the remnants of Phoenician-Punic literature, see chapter 18, this volume).
Map 42.1 Areas of Phoenician and Carthaginian exploration in the Atlantic.
Source: Map by E. Rodríguez.
Hanno’s expedition was commissioned to create settlements along the West African coast, but it evolved into an actual voyage of exploration. It started with sixty ships and 30,000 participants, as well as agricultural supplies—a massive colonizing effort that may have established some of the numerous Carthaginian localities in this region that were remembered in the first century bce (Strab. 17.3.8)—but when the cruise reached the Carthaginian trading post of Kerne (at an unknown location, perhaps around the Bay of Arguin in modern Mauritania), a small contingent went farther, perhaps in search of metal resources. No more settlements were established, and the report of Hanno’s voyage changes its tone, showing awe and even fear of the situation, including confrontations with hostile locals speaking no known language. Alien flora and fauna, such as crocodiles and hippopotami, were noted. The expedition followed the coast as it turned east, entering the Gulf of Guinea, eventually coming to an active volcano called the Chariot of the Gods. Without doubt this is Mount Cameroon, the only volcano on this coast. Three days later, probably in the vicinity of modern Cape Lopez in Gabon, just south of the Equator, the expedition turned back, after an engagement with the hostile peoples called the Gorillai. Whether these were people or apes remains disputed, but in the nineteenth century, the name was applied to the anthropoid ape.
Hanno’s expedition is unique in the history of ancient exploration. The account preserved in Greek is unusually precise in its description of local conditions, and while there are problems with the text—it is a summary of a summary, and there are several gaps—it remains the earliest and most detailed report of an expedition by a Mediterranean culture far from its familiar territory. It survives today as a rare eye-witness account from antiquity of pure exploration, a contrast to the vague information preserved about the circumnavigation of Africa or the journey of Hanno’s contemporary, Himilkon. Until the fifteenth century (CE) it was the most detailed report about the West African coast.
Himilkon, in turn, went to the north, spending four months on an expedition that seems to have been an extensive reconnaissance (Avienus Ora Maritima 117–19, 380–83, 412–13). Because knowledge of his travels is limited to three brief references in the Ora Maritima, details are difficult to come by, but he certainly went as far as Brittany, perhaps becoming aware of (or even visiting) Ireland. He may also have reached the Azores. Since the Phoenicians already knew about the Tin Islands (Kassiterides), located somewhere at the northwestern extremity of Europe, Himilkon may have been attempting both to perfect the route for the Carthaginians and go beyond the Phoenician limits of knowledge. There is also a possibility that he explored parts of West Africa (Plin. HN 2.169).
There is some indication of Carthaginian exploration into the Atlantic (Roller 2006: 45–50; cf. chapter 41, this volume). As noted, Himilkon may have reached the Azores, and some Carthaginian coins have been found there, although the evidence is contradictory. Vague Carthaginian reports of islands in the Atlantic may refer to these, or else to the Madeiras (Diod. Sic. 5.20). There is also evidence of an attempt to determine the routes across the Sahara. A certain Magon recorded that he had crossed the desert three times with no water and only minimal supplies (Ath. 2.44e). At first glance this seems a fantasy tale, and it is only reported in a late source that gives no indicat
ion of date, but if Magon’s commission was to discover the trans-Saharan oasis routes, his report seems perfectly reasonable. He may date from the same time as Hanno and Himilkon, or somewhat later; the desert crossings were known to the Greek world by the mid-fifth century bce (Hdt. 2.32). Magon’s exploration demonstrates that the Carthaginians struck out in all possible directions.
After Magon there is no further indication of Carthaginian exploration. They established no significant presence in northwest Europe or sub-Saharan Africa, but the settlements and trading posts on the West African coast were still flourishing in the mid-fourth century bce. At that time, an unknown Greek traveler visited Kerne and reported on the vigorous local trading economy that included Attic pottery, ivory, and the skins of tropical animals (Pseudo-Skylax 112). He was also successfully dissuaded by the local authorities from going any farther, a demonstration that the Carthaginians were still in control of the situation and did not want foreigners on the loose in their territory. But within a century, Carthage began to tangle with Rome, and by the late third century bce there were numerous abandoned cities and trading posts on the West African coast (Eratosth. Geog. F107 = Strab. 17.3.8). When Carthage fell to Rome in 146 bce, their records came into Greek and Roman hands and the extent of their explorations became known. Polybius of Megalopolis, better known today as a historian but who saw himself primarily as an explorer, and who was in the entourage of Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus when Carthage was destroyed, was dispatched to investigate the extent of the Carthaginian world outside the Pillars of Heracles (Polyb. 34.15.7–9). Besides scrutinizing the reports found in the Carthaginian library (later lost), Polybius visited Kerne, which was in decline (it was to be abandoned within a century), and he may have become the first Greek to cross the Equator (Polyb. 34.15.7–9; Strab. 1.3.2; Roller 2006: 100–104). He reported to Scipio that there was nothing of interest to the Romans in that direction, and there was no further European exploration of the region until the Renaissance.