The governments of such Phoenician cities as Tyre, Sidon, and Byblos were led by hereditary monarchs throughout their history. Those individual cities typically acted autonomously from each other and only rarely did they form mutual alliances. The absolute power of the Phoenician kings, even if they had at their disposal a council of elders for consultation, is attested by various ancient sources, including the Hebrew prophets of the Old Testament. Below the king, matters of government were also carried out by a priestly class and those elite households who controlled the international trade upon which Phoenicia so prospered.
A COLLECTION OF CITY-STATES
Phoenicia was never a single political entity but rather a collection of culturally similar cities on the narrow strip of the Levant. Each city had its own independent system of government, which controlled the city and its surrounding territory. At certain times one city might be more dominant than another in the region but individual autonomy was not perhaps compromised. Sidon dominated in the 12th and 11th centuries BCE while thereafter Tyre was the most powerful Phoenician city. Only very occasionally did one Phoenician city form a formal alliance with another. Even when the cities acted with the same policies, they did so individually. An example is in the 5th century BCE when Phoenician cities contributed ships to the Persian fleet of Xerxes, each group acted under their own commander’s orders. brainliest plz
