The Phoenician Merchantman

Extract

Herewith are reproduced a picture and a quotation—two sources of information on the ships of the first great commercial sea-empire known to history. The home of the empire was Phoenicia on the east coast of the Aegean. Its people were Semites. Just off the Great Road of the caravan traffic between Egypt and the fertile lands of the Euphrates, the Phoenicians took to boats instead of camels. At first cautiously paddling in their crude dugouts from headland to headland, they in time built larger and more adequate boats, which enabled them to make the Aegean their market. In time, also, they planted colonies farther west, which became rich and strong long before Rome had risen to strength. The Periplus of Hanno, which tells of exploring down the west coast of Africa with a view to planting a colony, is a great story of adventure. By the sixth century B. C., the commerce of the Phoenicians embraced the far reaches of the known world.