Arrakhis said:
thx for the info that cleared me, it stims my curiosity more, I remember canaanite once quite big kingdom as well
Roman/Greek def werent show up in that era were they
I'd have to doublecheck. Levantine politics is horribly tricky, but my understanding was the last major demographics shift prior to the classical age (480 BC onward) was the Sea People, so the levant was pretty much:
1) Hebrews
2) Philistines (Loosely modern day Palestine's Gaza Strip & Israel's southern coast)
3) Phoenicians on the Lebanese/Southern syria Coast
4) Aramaeans on the interior
5) Bedouins and such annoying errybody
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e8/Levant_830.svg = Israel would be shrunk dramatically by the late 8th century when you get the Twelve Tribes situation. It seems like some sort of Kingdom of Israel still may have existed, but in horribly neutered form.
Canaanites seem to have been as far as I can tell the proto-Phoenicians or pre-Aramaean populace, which ceased to really exist as an independent or totally distinct entity by 'our point', but still had a fairly strong cultural legacy.
Revan Shah: At the moment the plan is to make bandits topical to the faction replacing their territory (Desert Bandits become Nubians/Bedouin to harass Egypt, Steppe bandits become un-steppe-like Aramao-Chaldeans to harass the Assyrians in Khergit territory), but that's a good idea. Sea Raiders themselves might become Steppe-nomads if Persia takes over Vaegir territory and Scythia Nord territory, but perhaps Mountain Bandits (being found in Rhodok territory and raiding the interior) could work as the new Grecian "Sea Raiders".