Ancient Carthage - Extent of Phoenician Settlement

Extent of Phoenician Settlement

In order to provide safe harbors for their merchant fleets, to maintain a Phoenician monopoly on an area's natural resources, or to conduct trade free of outside interference, the Phoenicians established numerous colonial cities along the coasts of the Mediterranean. They were also stimulated to found these cities by a need to satisfy the demand for trade goods or to escape the necessity of paying tribute to the succession of empires that ruled Tyre, Sidon, and Byblos, and by fear of complete Greek colonization of that part of the Mediterranean suitable for commerce. The Phoenicians lacked the population or necessity to establish large self-sustaining cities abroad, and most of their colonial cities had fewer than 1,000 inhabitants, but Carthage and a few others developed larger populations.