6. Jewish Emigration to Phoenicia

Illustrating the overpopulation of the Jews in Judea, the author mentions the deportation of "many tens of thousands" of Jews to Babylonia by the Persians,^[151] and adds that after Alexander's death "no fewer emigrated to Egypt and Phoenicia because of the disturbance [stasis ] in Syria" (Ap. I.194). The context obviously allows for many thousands emigrating to Phoenicia alone. The sentence explains that the Jews moved from Judea to Phoenicia because their country was suffering from the recurring wars in the region in the time of the Successors. This means that Phoenicia was not affected by the "disturbance."

[148] See p. 55 above.

[149] See p. 70 above.

[150] Cf. Jacoby's comment in a rather similar context: "es ist wirklich sehr gleichgiltig, ob er [the Jewish author] Hekataios nun auch 'benutzt' hat" ([1943] 65).

[151] On the possible background and date of this deportation, see pp. 143-44 below.

1.
Phoenicia, the coastal plain, and the regions of the
interior in the Hellenistic period.

Before commenting on the statement itself, the meaning of "Phoenicia" in this context should be elucidated. There was no substantial Jewish settlement in Phoenicia proper—that is, in the area of Tyre and Sidon—nor even on the coast north of Mount Carmel, at any period in the days of the Second Temple.^[152] At the same time we have ample evidence for a great concentration of Jews in the coastal plain south of the Carmel during certain periods.^[153] Greeks indeed had applied the term "Phoenicia" as a geographical name to the coast of the Holy Land since the late Persian period,^[154] a usage that was also preserved under Hasmonean^[155] and Roman^[156] rule. It was also the official administrative

[152] This is evident from Josephus's accounts of the Great Revolt in the Bellum and Vita and from his geographical excursus in Bell. III.35-40. The later information in rabbinic sources about several Jewish sites on the west coast of Galilee is irrelevant to the period of the Second Temple. Syncellus I.559 mentions a siege of Tyre by Alexander Jannaeus, which is not recorded by any other source. Be the historicity of this information as it may, there is no reason to believe that Jannaeus made territorial gains in the neighborhood of the great Phoenician cities. Ptolemaïs (Acre) and its chora , which were much closer to Judea proper, were not occupied by the Hasmoneans.

[153] See pp. 124-28 below.

[154] In the first half of the Persian period, the Greeks used the term "Phoenicia" for the northern coast of Syria and the Holy Land, while the southern coast was called "Palaestina" (Hdt. III.5.91, VII.89). As a result of the attachment of a number of southern cities to Sidon and Tyre in the late Persian period, the whole coastal plain seems to have been regarded as one unit named after its rulers, the Phoenicians. See Kahrstedt (1926) 5, 37, 39-40, based mainly on Pseudo-Scylax (GGM I.79). This is also accepted by M. Stern (1974-84) I.290. The counterarguments of Leuze (1935) 204-7 (supported by Galling [1964] 168) fail to convince. They also ignore the statement of Strabo XVI.2.21 (see nn. 156, 158 below), which, reflecting the Ptolemaic period, may also be indicative of the principal arrangements in the late Persian age.

[155] See Ant. XIII.350, 395-96 (both references based on Strabo); Syncellus I.548. On the later source, p. 125 below.

designation under the Successors,^[157] Ptolemies,^[158] and Seleucids,^[159] and possibly also in the late Persian period,^[160] but under the Hasmoneans and the Romans the political-administrative border was pushed northward to the Carmel coast.^[161] Whether a geographical or an administrative term, the author refers to the coastal plain to the west and northwest of the Judean Hills.

Turning back to the sentence under consideration, the explanation provided for the Jewish emigration to Phoenicia seems rather odd. It

[157] See Diod. 1.78.5, drawing on Hecataeus.

[158] On the borders of Phoenicia during the Ptolemaic period, see Strabo XVI.2.21. The specification "from Orthosia to Pelusium" was taken from Artemidorus (according to 2.33), who flourished ca. 100 B.C. It can only refer to the Ptolemaic period, when the coast up to Pelusium was under one rule. The northern border of Phoenicia as described also accords with the available information on the Ptolemaic border in the north (see, on the line Tripolis-Heliopolis or the river Eleutherus, Tcherikover [1937] 110; Bagnall [1976] 11-13). The inclusion of the Sinai coast in Phoenicia is somewhat surprising, but it may have its demographic and military reasons; and in any case, Ptolemaic Phoenicia certainly was subdivided into smaller units. It should be added that Strabo's account of Coile Syria and Phoenicia is, by and large, a contamination of data on the Hasmonean kingdom (e.g., 2.28) mixed with information from the Ptolemaic period (see, e.g., the names Bucolopolis and Crocodilopolis in 2.27; the mention of Strato's Tower and the absence of Dora in the same paragraph, which accords with the data from the Zeno papyri of 259 B.C. ).

[159] See II Macc. 4.21-22. The administrative district called Paralia founded by the Seleucids in the wake of the Maccabean Revolt, or perhaps even earlier, to the south of the old Phoenician cities (I Macc. 10.50, 15.38; II Mace. 13.24), was still part of "Phoenicia." The latter was after all one of the two components of "Coile Syria and Phoenicia," the official name of the Seleucid satrapy that included the Holy Land. On Paralia, see Bengtson (1964) II.176; Bar-Kochva (1989) 239.

[160] So Kahrstedt (1926) 37 on the Phoenician synedrion according to Diod. XVI.41.1. It stands to reason that the council naturally held authority over the annexed cities on the Palestinian coast, although each of the major cities constituted a political unit in itself (on which see Avi-Yonah [1966] 23-31, [1971] 233-34).

[161] On the Hasmonean period: Ant. XIII.324-25, Bell. I.66; Strabo XVI.2.28. For Roman rule: Jos. Vit. 31,Ap. II.116, Bell. III.35; Pliny, NH V.69; Ptol. Geogr. V.14.3. On the latter, see Z. Safrai (1981) 272.

must have been much safer for Jews to stay in the Judean Hills than to move nearer the sea.^[162] The struggle between the Successors, like the later one between the Ptolemies and the Seleucids for control of Syria and the Land of Israel, was mainly concentrated on the coastal plain (including the area of Tyre and Sidon). That strip of land was most important for the Successors because of its position on the road leading to Egypt and because of the Phoenician naval tradition. Almost all the military confrontations took place along the coast. The Jewish population was clustered mainly in the Judean Hills, which were isolated and relatively remote from the main arena. The statement that the Jews left for Phoenicia to escape the "disturbance" just proves that the author was not properly cognizant of the circumstances in the area after Alexander's death. This certainly would not be expected of Hecataeus.

Even without this observation, the very statement about a massive migration of Jews to Phoenicia in the time of the Successors is unacceptable. The available information indicates that Jewish settlements on the coastal plain at the time preceding the Hasmonean state were few and rather small.^[163] The statement is thus anachronistic, reflecting later developments in the region.