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Just a question that I hope can receive some elaboration. I'm well aware that Carthage was founded in the early part of the first millennium BCE by Tyre. What I'm looking for are the feedback loops between these cities. The cities of Phoenicia proper were well known throughout their existence as fielders of impressive navies. They were also capable of maintaining treaties with their descendents abroad if the Phoenician refusal to attack Carthage under Cambyses II is anything to go by. Clearly then the Achaemenids felt it highly problematic to conduct such a campaign without Phoenician assistance. There's also the tribute from Carthage to temple of Melqart in Tyre to consider, as this continues after Carthage is already independent.

How did the cities of Phoenicia protect their commercial interest overseas? Did they simply supply their dependencies and leave them to do the heavy lifting or was it a complex web of treaties and tributary obligations? Perhaps influence was more indirect, where the authority of Phoenicia over its cities was strictly nominal, with the main policy being to ensure a steady trade route across the Mediterranean.

Was there any political coordination between these cities or was it a matter of just acting under shared commercial interests? Was protection from Tyre ever reliable for the daughter cities?

Since Carthage, as a Punic city, was able to create a hegemony with itself at the head from Mago onwards, is it possible for the cities of Phoenicia (Tyre, Sidon etc.) to do something similar?

Or was their relationship simply too shadowy for us to reconstruct to any considerable degree?
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