The production of purple garments would lead me to guess this was a Phoenician colony, since they had a virtual monopoly on purple dye. The name “phoenician” actually is a reference, in Greek, to that dye they were famous for.
The name “phoenician” actually is a reference, in Greek, to that dye they were famous for.
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Thank you for that information. Did not know that.
That used to be said, not sure that’s true; the Greek word “phoenix” is said to have been the root of “phoenician”, but the Phoenicians themselves referred to themselves by city of origin, e.g. Tyrian (that was also commonplace among Greeks, although they also identified themselves by ethnicity, such as Ionian, Dorian, etc). Wiki-wacky traces the etymology back to an Egyptian term for “Asian”, which makes sense, the Greeks loved puns and wordplay.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenicia#Etymology
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