Posidonius, as quoted by Strabo and Seneca the Younger, described an earthquake that "swallowed up a city above Sidon" and destroyed two-thirds of Sidon itself. The damage in Sidon is reported to have occurred gradually, with little loss of life, suggesting slow ground deformation rather than sudden collapse and possibly reflecting structural displacement associated with liquefaction. Shaking is described as moderate in Syria but was likely stronger in Phoenicia and may have originated from an offshore source. The event is poorly dated. Ambraseys (2009) places the earthquake in the second century BCE and estimates that it occurred around 199 BCE. Most earthquake catalogs list dates of 199 or 198 BCE, though the chronology remains uncertain. A few catalogs instead assign the event to 525 BCE, but the basis for this earlier date is unclear.