Introduction
The Phoenician universe stretches from the Eastern Mediterranean to the Atlantic shores, from the cedars of present Lebanon to the mouth of the Loukos River hard by ancient Lixus in today's Northern Morocco. It is impossible to produce an exhaustive map of Phoenicia given that the territory's confines fluctuated a good deal over the centuries. Sailing all over the world and creating settlements betwixt land and sea, the Phoenicians pacifically passed on their knowledge, their achievements and their inventions. They were highly conscious of a power and might, consolidated by a heritage of cultural, spiritual and commercial exchanges. Hanno[1]'s famous periplus took a fleet of Carthaginian ships all the way along the African coast from Gades to the gulf of Guinea. So, what was the nature of its political and social organisation that characterised the Phoenician-Punic world? What were the means which so efficiently consolidated the Phoenician-Punic power[2] ? What were the salient traits that impacted on the Phoenician-Punic world at religious and cultural levels?
