I was a priest in the city-state era

The Mesopotamian and Nile River basins are known as the two major civilizations in human history.

The Phoenician region, which connects the Mesopotamian Plain in the northeast and the Egyptian region in the southwest, is like a corridor for communication between the Mesopotamian and Nile River basins. The advanced civilization of the Mesopotamian basin has been spreading from the Phoenician region to the Egyptian region.

Although the Phoenician region was able to absorb the advanced civilization of the Mesopotamian basin, the Phoenicians living here did not establish a powerful kingdom.

This is certainly not a problem of the Phoenicians themselves.

In the history of another world, the Phoenicians were able to establish the Carthaginian Empire in Tunisia in the central Mediterranean to compete with the Greeks and Romans for hegemony in the Mediterranean. This is enough to prove that the Phoenicians could not rise in the Phoenician region because the Phoenician region was too barren.

The area of ​​the Phoenician region is only about 40,000 square kilometers, and there are more mountains and fewer plains here, and the food produced can only feed 200,000 people.

In addition to the barren land, the resources in the Phoenician region are also very barren.

The minerals such as iron, copper, and lignite here are not only in small reserves, but also difficult to mine.

Even if the Phoenician rulers had great ambitions, they could not mine a large amount of copper to cast bronze weapons and arm their soldiers to conquer the Mesopotamian or Egyptian regions.

It was precisely because the Phoenician region was poor in resources that the overlords who conquered the Mesopotamian and the overlords who conquered Egypt had no interest in incorporating the Phoenician region into their territory.

It was not until the establishment of the 18th Dynasty of Egypt that the Phoenician region was conquered by the Egyptian Empire.

Since 2,000 BC, the food in the Phoenician region has been unable to feed the growing population.

So in order to survive, the Phoenicians began to use their increasingly mature navigation technology to explore the Mediterranean coast westward.

There were two main commodities that the Phoenicians used to trade food with the residents of the Mediterranean coast. The first was the abundant potassium salt in the Dead Sea, and the second was cotton, which was widely grown in Egypt, West Asia, and India.

In the history of another world, it was not until the 9th century AD that the cotton planting technology spread to the European continent.

So in the three thousand years of history, cotton cloth has always been a luxury commodity in the European continent.

In this era 1,600 years ago BC, only the royal family and the nobility could wear cotton clothes.

Under Roy's guidance, the Athenian Empire had begun to grow cotton on a large scale.

In a few years, cotton clothes in the Athenian Empire would become cheap goods that ordinary people could wear.

In the mythology of another world, Tyre and Sidon in the Phoenician region were two wealthy and powerful city-states, and the rulers here were the Phoenician King Agenor.

Princess Europa, who became Zeus's human wife, was the daughter of the Phoenician King Agenor.

Cadmus, the founder of the city of Thebes, was the son of the Phoenician King Agenor.

Mythology is of course different from history.

The prototype of Europa is the earth goddess worshipped by the Knossos people on the island of Crete.

Greek mythology sets Europa as the daughter of the Phoenician king, probably because the people who made up the myth believed that the Knossos people were descendants of the Phoenicians who were good at sea navigation.

However, excavations in modern society have proved that Crete has Neolithic cultural relics from 10,000 BC to 3,000 BC.

Moreover, the Minoan culture of Crete appeared in 2,600 BC.

Even if it was true that immigrants from Western Asia brought advanced civilization to Crete and brought Crete into the Minoan civilization period, it should be the residents of the Asia Minor Peninsula, which is closest to Crete, who migrated to Crete because of the increase in population.

However, the Cretans of Crete and the Phoenicians in the Phoenician region can indeed be regarded as distant relatives.

Because the Cretans and Phoenicians who immigrated from the Asia Minor Peninsula to Crete were both Western Asian ethnic groups that worshipped goddesses.

Before the invasion of the ancient Aryans three thousand years ago, the goddess Europa and Pandora worshipped by the Cretans, the goddess Aphrodite worshipped by the Phoenicians, the goddess of the earth worshipped by the Pelasgians, and the sun goddess and earth goddess of the Hittite Kingdom may have originated from the same goddess.

Pelasgians, Cretans, Phoenicians, Hittites--

These ethnic groups that worship goddesses may have been branches of the same ethnic group in ancient times.

Just like the Thracians, Etruscans, Mycenaeans, Hyksos, Amorites and other ethnic groups, they are all branches of the ancient Aryans.

Tyre City.

Roy brought 25,000 troops to this Phoenician city and saw that the Phoenicians were very numb to the arrival of foreign invaders.

Since 3,000 BC, various branches of the ancient Aryans have come to the Phoenician region.

But they all left on their own in the end.

Because the Phoenician region is too barren.

Even the local Phoenicians have to rely on sailing to obtain food and other supplies needed for survival from other regions.

The unproductive nomads came to the Phoenician region and soon they could not stand the barrenness here.

So the Phoenicians summed up an experience that as long as the foreign invaders did not attack their easy-to-defend cities, they could occupy the land outside the city at will.

Anyway, in the end, the foreign invaders will leave on their own.

Before Roy's army attacked Tyre, Tyre sent a middle-aged envoy wearing a purple cotton robe to negotiate with Roy.

Before negotiating with the Phoenician envoy, Roy asked the Phoenician envoy first.

"Tyrian envoy, is the king of your city of Tyre called Agenor?"

"Who is Agenor?"

The Phoenician envoy answered with doubt.

"The king of our city of Tyre is not Agenor."

"Then do you know the Phoenician prince Cadmus?"

"Yes!"

The Phoenician envoy nodded and said.

"He is the prince of a small city-state in the Phoenician region. Because the Hittite Kingdom began to conquer the Syrian region ruled by the Amorites, some Amorites who were forced to migrate began to occupy our Phoenician territory. After Cadmus' city-state was conquered by the Amorites, Cadmus left the Phoenician region with some followers."

"Is this the big fish eating the small fish?"

After listening to the explanation of the Phoenician envoy, Roy couldn't help laughing.

"The Hittite Kingdom occupied the territory of the Amorites, and the Amorites came to occupy the territory of the Phoenicians. Cadmus, a Phoenician, had his territory taken away, so he ran to the Greek region, wanting to establish a country and become king in the backward Greek region."

"Great Emperor of Athens, can we start negotiations now? As long as you promise not to attack the city of Tyre, we are willing to give you all the land outside the city and pay tribute to you."

"It seems that all the food in your city of Tyre is transported from other places by cargo ships."

Roy said with a playful smile.

"Emissary of Tyre! My purpose in coming to the Phoenician region is not only to conquer the land of Phoenicia, but also to conquer you Phoenicians. After all, population is the most important. Now go back and tell the king and nobles of Tyre that if they surrender, I can forgive the crimes they committed when they were pirates and make them legal merchants of the Athenian Empire. If they refuse to surrender, I will not only confiscate all their property, but also demote all the men and women in their family to lifelong slaves."

I almost forgot to thank my book friend Li Yi'an Shanghong for rewarding 100 points!

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