I’m blushing! Thank you for the praise, good sir. I’m planning on writing much more about our purple friends (Next up: “The Baals in your court.” Unless I can think of a less dorky title). I’ll definitely take your suggestions about individual Phoenicians’ stories to heart — Hannibal Barca and Princess Jezebel spring to mind.

Re: your question about the relation between different cultures, here’s my understanding: the Carthaginians were Phoenician colonists; the Canaanites were Bronze-Age Phoenicians, the city of Ugarit marked the northernmost extent ancient of Canaan, and the Israelites are … a bit longer of story, depending on how much of the Bible is true! Like the Mesopotamians and Arabs, the people of this region (and their eventual colonies throughout the Med) spoke Semitic language, but I think they’re distinct enough to be considered their own culture — a good analogy might be the English and their far-flung modern-day colonial descendants.

One of the best books I’ve encountered is all about the Ugaritic texts: Stories from Canaan. I also just started reading Carthage Must Be Destroyed, which includes a nice history of Carthage’s precursor Phoenician culture in the Levant, and I’m enjoying it so far. I have not read the Sanchuniathon, or even heard of it — my knowledge of Greek history is embarrassingly bad— so thank you for bringing it to my attention! I’ll definitely put it on my list.

Thanks again for the kind words — I’m really enjoying your stuff too. I’m new to this whole Medium business but it’s sure nice to find fellow travelers.