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Sidon

Phoenician port city whose ships led the King's fleet, 6th-5th century BCE

Sidon, on the coast of Lebanon, was one of the great Phoenician cities with Tyre and Byblos. Under the Persians its kings commanded the best ships of the royal fleet. Herodotus says the Sidonians won the boat race Xerxes held at Abydos, and the king of Sidon took the first seat in his council.

In the game: Sidon is named in the Memphis and Sardis trade partners' caravans, in the Phoenicians' notes and in sailors' chatter in the fleet levels.

First of the fleet

Ancient account

At Abydos Xerxes watched a race between the ships, and the Phoenicians of Sidon won. Before Salamis the commanders sat in the order the King gave them, first the king of Sidon, then the king of Tyre. Herodotus names Tetramnestus son of Anysus as the Sidonian commander.

Herodotus 7.44, 7.96, 7.98, 8.67

The Sidonian ship

Ancient account

Herodotus says Xerxes sailed in a Sidonian ship when he reviewed the fleet at Doriscus, and later chose a Sidonian ship to view the Peneus gorge. Sidon's ships also carried Democedes and the Persians sent to spy out Greece under Darius.

Herodotus 3.136, 7.100, 7.128

The kings and their tombs

In the record

Inscribed sarcophagi of Sidonian kings of the Persian period survive, among them Tabnit and his son Eshmunazar II, of the late sixth or fifth century. Eshmunazar's inscription says the Lord of Kings gave him Dor and Joppa, probably a grant from the Persian king for naval service.

Eshmunazar II sarcophagus inscription (Louvre)

Purple and glass

Ancient account

Sidon and Tyre were famous for murex purple dye and for fine glass and metalwork. In Homer, Sidonian craftsmen make silver bowls and embroidered robes. The dye-works with their heaps of crushed shells have been found at Sidon.

Homer, Iliad 6.289-292, 23.743