Read (subscription needed) in the February 2025 issue of the IJMH Dan Swanbeck’s review of “Phoenicians among Others: Why Migrants Mattered in the Ancient Mediterranean” by Denise Demetriou
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/08438714241306490
Phoenicians among Others provides the first history of Phoenician immigrants in the ancient Mediterranean from the fourth to the first centuries bce. Through an examination of inscriptions, many bilingual in Phoenician and Greek or Egyptian, Phoenicians among Others demonstrates how mobility and migration challenged migrants and states alike. Far from being excluded, and despite facing prejudices, immigrants mobilized adaptive strategies to mediate their experiences and encourage a sense of membership and belonging, constructed new identities, and transformed the societies they joined. By integrating the voices and histories of immigrants with those of the states in which they lived, the book demonstrates the diverse ways migrants influenced the development of societies, introduced new institutions, shaped the policies of their home and host states, made notions of citizenship more fluid, and changed the course of local, regional, and Mediterranean histories.
IMHA 