This is the first detailed account of the history of Phoenicia under the domination of the Greeks and Macedonians. It reveals how the Phoenicians survived and even prospered through sometimes painful adaptation to Hellenistic life.

The cultural history of the Phoenicians seems to have stopped short at the time of Alexander the Great's destruction of the city of Tyre, yet in truth, these people survived the destruction of their cities and the confiscation of their lands to enjoy long periods of peace and prosperity. This study pursues the themes of trade and economic history and shows how the adaptation of the Phoenicians to life in the Hellenistic world reveals a number of features common to that world as a whole, but also some which are distinctive to the Phoenicians themselves. The first full account of the Hellenization of Phoenician culture, this book will provide a new look at Hellenistic life for all interested in Roman and near-eastern culture.

After Alexander the Great sacked Tyre in 332BC the Phoenicians practically drop out of history. John D Grainger makes a scholarly and diligent effort to recover them in the first full-length modern study of the long Phoenician twilight under Greco-Macedonian rule.