What is the modern day equivalent of 1st century Phoenicia?

Answer 1

Phoenicia was a generalised cultural term, not a recognised geographical country. It was comprised of city states originally on the coast of what are now Lebanon, Israel etc., and later colonies such as Carthage in Tunisia. However, the Phoenicians as a power effectively disappeared in their homeland when they were conquered by the Persians in 539 B.C. Carthage survived until destroyed by the Romans in 146 B.C. so there was really nothing left in the 1st century B.C.

Answer 2

The Phoenicians of Carthage were sold into slavery by the Romans in 146 BCE. Of the Phoenician city-states of the Eastern Mediterranean absorbed into the Hellenistic Egyptian and Seleucid kingdoms in the late 4th Century BCE, Tyre and Sidon regained independence in the late 2nd Century BCE, however they were absorbed into the Roman Empire province of Syria in 65 BCE by Pompey. So today's equivalent would be something like the threat looming over Ukraine and the Baltic States.