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Thehistory of ancient Lebanon traces the course of events related to the geographic area in the Eastern Mediterranean of what is now known asLebanon from the beginning of antiquity to thebeginning of Arab rule.
The earliest known settlements in Lebanon date back to earlier than 5000 BC. InByblos, which is considered to be the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world, archaeologists have discovered remnants of prehistoric huts with crushed limestone floors, primitive weapons, and burial jars which are evidence of theNeolithic andChalcolithic fishing communities who lived on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea over 8,000 years ago.[citation needed]
The area was first recorded in history around 4000 BC as a group of coastal cities and a heavily forested hinterland.[citation needed] It was inhabited by theCanaanites, aSemitic people, whom the Greeks called "Phoenicians" because of the purple (phoinikies) dye they sold. These early inhabitants referred to themselves as "men of Sidon" or the like, according to their city of origin. The Canaanites were city-state settlers, who established colonies throughout the Mediterranean (see: List of Phoenician cities) into a form of a Thalassocracy as opposed to an established empire with a designated capital city.[citation needed]
Each of the coastal cities was an independent city-state noted for the special activities of its inhabitants.[citation needed]Tyre andSidon were important maritime and trade centers; Gubla (later known asByblos; in Arabic,Jbeil) and Berytus (present-dayBeirut) were trade and religious centers. Gubla was the first Canaanite city to trade actively withEgypt and the pharaohs of theOld Kingdom (2686-2181 BC), exporting cedar, olive oil, and wine, while importing gold and other products from the Nile Valley.[citation needed]
Before the end of the 17th century BC, Canaanite-Egyptian relations were interrupted when theHyksos, a nomadic Semitic people, conquered Egypt. After about three decades of Hyksos rule (1600-1570 BC),Ahmose I (1570-1545 BC), Theban prince, launched the Egyptian liberation war. Opposition to the Hyksos increased, reaching a peak during the reign of the pharaohThutmose III (1490-1436 BC), who invaded the area now known as Syria, put an end to Hyksos domination, and incorporated Canaan into the Egyptian Empire.[citation needed]
Toward the end of the 14th century BC, the Egyptian Empire weakened, and the city-states were able to regain some of their autonomy by the beginning of the 12th century BC. The subsequent three centuries were a period of prosperity and freedom from foreign control during which the earlier Canaanite invention of thealphabet facilitated communications and trade.[citation needed] The Canaanites also excelled not only in producing textiles but also in carving ivory, in working with metal, and above all in making glass. Masters of the art of navigation, they founded colonies wherever they went in theMediterranean Sea (specifically inCyprus,Rhodes,Crete, andCarthage) and established trade routes to Europe and western Asia. These colonies and trade routes flourished until the invasion of the coastal areas by theAssyrians.[citation needed]
In the Middle Bronze IIA, theBeqa Valley was a high way for trade between the Kingdom ofQatna in the north and Kingdom ofHazor in the south. Hazor may have been subject to Qatna, meaning that the entire region was under influence of Qatna, with Kadesh facing the northern part of the valley. Trade routes went further toMari on the Euphrates river. In the valley,Kamid el-Loz had a palace and temple, being a hub for trade routes going north-south and east-west. There were trade routes toBeirut,Sidon, Hazor,Damascus,Tell Hizzin andBaalbek.
In the Late Bronze II, the Beqa Valley (Amqu) was controlled from Kamid el-Loz became the seat of an Egyptian governor. The northern part of the Beqa Valley consisted of pasture lands and functioned as a border region toKadesh in the north. At first Syria was part of theMitanni Empire, but following the military campaigns ofSuppiluliuma I of Hatti (c. 1350 BC), Kadesh became a stronghold of the Hittite Empire facing the Egyptian Empire in the south. Literary evidence from this period is found in the Amarna Archive.
Assyrian rule (875-608 BC) deprived the Canaanite city-states of their independence and prosperity and brought repeated, unsuccessful rebellions. In the middle of the 8th century BC, Tyre and Byblos rebelled, but the Assyrian ruler,Tiglath-Pileser III, subdued the rebels and imposed heavy tributes.[citation needed] Oppression continued unabated, and Tyre rebelled again, this time againstSargon II (722-705 BC), who successfully besieged the city in 721 BC and punished its population. During the 7th century BC, the city of Sidon rebelled and was completely destroyed byEsarhaddon (681-668 BC); its inhabitants were enslaved. Esarhaddon built a new city on Sidon's ruins. By the end of the 7th century BC, the Assyrian Empire, weakened by the successive revolts, had been destroyed by theMedian Empire.[citation needed]
As the Babylonians finally defeated the Assyrians atCarchemish, much of the region of Canaan was already in their hands, since much of it was seized from the collapsing Assyrian kingdom. In that time two Babylonian kings succeeded the throne,Nabopolassar who focused on ending Assyrian influence in the region, and his sonNebuchadnezzar II whose reign witnessed several regional rebellions, especially in Jerusalem.[citation needed] Revolts in Canaanite cities became more frequent during that period (685-636 BC, Tyre rebelled again and for thirteen years resisted a siege by the troops of Nebuchadnezzar 587-574 BC. After this long siege, the city capitulated; its king was dethroned, and its citizens were enslaved.[citation needed]
| Achaemenid Phoenicia | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Province of thePersian Empire | |||||||||||||
| c.538 BC–c.332 BC | |||||||||||||
 Phoenicia within TheAchaemenid Empire, 500 BC. | |||||||||||||
| Historical era | Achaemenid Empire | ||||||||||||
• Cyrus the Great’s invasion ofBabylonia | c.538 BC | ||||||||||||
| c.332 BC | |||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
TheBabylonian province ofPhoenicia and its neighbors passed toAchaemenid rule with the conquest ofBabylon byCyrus the Great in 539/8 BC.[1]
The Syro-Canaan coastal cities remained under Persian rule for the following two centuries.[citation needed]The Canaanite navy supported Persia during theGreco-Persian War (490-49 BC). But when the Canaanites were overburdened with heavy tributes imposed by the successors ofDarius I (521-485 BC), revolts and rebellions resumed in the coastal city-states.[citation needed]
The Persian Empire, including the Canaan province, eventually fell toAlexander the Great, king ofMacedonia in 4th century BC.[citation needed]
Main rulers under the Achaemenid Empire:
The Persian Empire eventually fell toAlexander the Great, king ofMacedon. He attackedAsia Minor, defeated the Persian troops in 333 BC, and advanced toward the eastern Mediterranean coast. Initially the Canaanite cities made no attempt to resist, and they recognized Alexander as suzerain.[citation needed] However, when Alexander tried to offer a sacrifice toMelqart, Tyre's god, the city resisted. Alexander besieged Tyre in retaliation in early 332 BC. After six months of resistance, the city fell, and its people were sold into slavery. Despite his early death in 323 BC, Alexander's conquest of the eastern Mediterranean Basin left a Greek imprint on the area. The Phoenicians, being a cosmopolitan people amenable to outside influences, adopted aspects of Greek civilization with ease.[citation needed]
After Alexander's death, his empire was divided among his Macedonian generals. The eastern part—Canaan, Asia Minor, northern Syria, and Mesopotamia fell toSeleucus I, founder of theSeleucid dynasty. The southern part of modern day Syria and modern day Egypt fell toPtolemy, and the Balkan regions, including Macedonia, toAntigonus I. This settlement, however, failed to bring peace because Seleucus I and Ptolemy clashed repeatedly. A final victory of the Seleucids ended a forty-year period of conflict.[citation needed]
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The last century of Seleucid rule was marked by disorder and dynastic struggles. These ended in 64 BC, when the Roman generalPompey addedSeleucid Syria and Canaan as aRoman province to theRoman Empire. Economic and intellectual activities flourished in Canaan during thePax Romana. The inhabitants of the principal Canaanite city-states of Byblos, Sidon, and Tyre were grantedRoman citizenship. These cities were centers of the pottery, glass, and purple dye industries; their harbors also served as warehouses for products imported from eastern regions such as Persia and India. They exported cedar, perfume, jewelry, wine, and fruit to Rome. Economic prosperity led to a revival in construction and urban development; temples and palaces were built throughout the country, as well as paved roads that linked the main cities like Heliopolis andBerytus.[citation needed]
Indeed, starting in the last quarter of the 1st century BCE (reign ofAugustus) and over a period of two centuries (reign ofPhilip the Arab), the Romans built a huge temple complex in Heliopolis (actualBaalbek) on a pre-existingtell consisting of three temples: Jupiter, Bacchus and Venus. On a nearby hill, they built a fourth temple dedicated to Mercury.
Furthermore, the veterans of twoRoman legions were established in the city of Berytus (actual Beirut): thefifth Macedonian and thethird Gallic.[2] The city quickly became Romanized. Large public buildings and monuments were erected and Berytus enjoyed full status as a part of the empir</ref>
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Under the Romans,Berytus was enriched by the dynasty ofHerod the Great, and was made acolonia,Colonia Iulia Augusta Felix Berytus, in 14 BC.Beirut's school of law was widely known at the time.[3] Two of Rome's most famous jurists,Papinian andUlpian, both natives of Canaan, taught at the law school under theSeveran emperors.
Furthermore, The city of Heliopolis was made acolonia bySeptimius Severus in 193 AD, having been part of the territory of Berytus on the Canaanite coast since 15 BC. Work on the religious complex there lasted over a century and a half and was never completed. The dedication of the present temple ruins, the largest religious building in the entire Roman empire, dates from the reign of Septimus Severus, whose coins first show the two temples. The great courts of approach were not finished before the reigns ofCaracalla (211-217 CE) andPhilip the Arab (244-249 CE). In commemoration of the dedication of the new sanctuaries, Severus conferred the rights of theius Italicum on the city. Today, only six Corinthian columns remain standing of this huge Jupiter temple.
Severus also separated the area of modern Lebanon and parts of Syria from the greater province ofSyria Coele, and formed the new province ofPhoenice.[citation needed]
Upon the death ofTheodosius I in 395 AD, the Roman empire was ruled by 2 centres: the eastern orEastern Roman part with its capital atConstantinople, and thewestern part with its capital atRome.[citation needed] Under the Byzantine Empire, intellectual and economic activities in Beirut, Tyre, and Sidon continued to flourish for more than a century. However, in the late 6th century a series of earthquakes demolished the temples ofHeliopolis and destroyed the Romanizedcity of Beirut, leveling itsfamous law school and killing nearly 30,000 inhabitants. To these natural disasters were added the abuses and corruptions prevailing at that time in the empire. Heavy tributes and religious dissension produced disorder and confusion. Furthermore, the ecumenical councils of the 5th and 6th centuries were unsuccessful in settling religious disagreements. This turbulent period weakened the empire and made it easy prey to the newly convertedMuslimArabs of theArabian Peninsula that invaded the region in 642 AD.[citation needed]
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