city state · Anatolia and the Levant
Arwad
Origins
Arwad occupies a small island off Tartus, giving it a sheltered harbour and natural defences. A Canaanite town by the Late Bronze Age, it appears in the Amarna letters, and after 1200 BCE it became the northernmost of the great Phoenician cities, controlling the facing coast.
Rule and society
Kings ruled with a council of elders over a city of tall houses and a fleet of merchant ships. Arwad supplied ships to Tiglath-Pileser I of the Assyrian Empire, and its king Mattan-Baal sent troops to the coalition against Shalmaneser III at Qarqar in 853 BCE. It later contributed ships to the Persian fleet.
Decline and legacy
Arwad submitted to Alexander of the Macedonian Empire in 332 BCE, kept wide autonomy under the Seleucid Empire, and counted its own era from 259 BCE. It lost independence when Pompey annexed Syria in 64 BCE.
On the connections map
Open the full map →Connections (4)
- Arwad paid tribute to Assyrian Empire870 BCE – 640 BCE
- Arwad was a vassal of Achaemenid Empire539 BCE – 333 BCE
- Arwad was a vassal of Seleucid Empire300 BCE – 259 BCE
- Arwad was conquered by Roman Republic64 BCE
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Cite this page
- APA
- The Epoch Institute. (2026). Arwad. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/arwad
- MLA
- “Arwad.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/arwad. Accessed .
- Chicago
- The Epoch Institute. “Arwad.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/arwad.
- Harvard
- The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Arwad’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/arwad (Accessed: ).
Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻