A wave of sympathy might have been expected to sweep across the excitable people, and it would not have been surprising had they rushed headlong into rebellion with the same impetuosity as their Cyprian brethren.

Had they done so the danger to Persia would have been very great, and the course of the world's history might perhaps have been differently shaped.

The junction of the Phoenician fleet with the navies of Cyprus, Ionia, Caria, and AEolis would have transferred the complete sovereignty of the Eastern Mediterranean to the side of the rebels.[14275] The contagion of revolt would probably have spread.

Lycia and Cilicia, always eager for independence,[14276] would probably have joined the malcontents; Pamphylia, which lay between them, would have followed their example; the entire seaboard of Asia Minor and Syria would have been lost; Egypt would, most likely, have seen in the crisis her opportunity, and have avenged the cruelties and insults of Cambyses[14277] by the massacre of her Persian garrison.

Persia's prosperity would have received a sudden check, from which it might never have recovered; Greece would have escaped the ordeal of the invasion of Xerxes; and the character of the struggle between Europe and Asia would have been completely altered.
But the view which the Phoenicians took of their duties, or of their interests, led them to act differently.