The Phoenicians were great traders on the Levantine (Lebanon/Syria) coast and are also noted for their foundation of Carthage, the future rival of Rome for supremacy in the Mediterranean. Their southern neighbours, the Israelites, developed a great kingdom in around 1000 BC. The Israelite state, however, soon split into two parts: Judea, which survived until the 6th century BC, and Israel, destroyed by the Assyrians in the 8th century BC.
