statuettes, and textiles. The nodes of this network were stations carefully
selected as emporia, processing centers, and strongholds for safeguarding
vital points along the way. Several were founded with substantial numbers of
settlers from the homeland and evolved into independent cities.
Classical authors including Pliny and Strabo claim that the Phoenicians
were active in the western Mediterranean in the twelfth centuryBCEwith
their earliest outposts at Lixus in Morocco and Gades (Cadiz) in Spain, both
beyond the Straits of Gibraltar on the Atlantic side, both foundedc. 1100
BCE.The archaeological evidence points to the eighth and seventh centuries
BCEas the time for such expansion although a recent discovery of Phoenician
inscriptions on Sardinia dating to the eleventh or tenth century has rekindled
the controversy. Using, perhaps, old Mycenaean routes, the Phoenicians
hopped from Cyprus to the Aegean, where they were seeking silver and
slaves by the mid-ninth century, and beyond to Sicily, Sardinia, the Balearic
Islands, and Spain. Some evidence shows them in the Rabat area of Morocco
in the eighth century. They tended to settle their colonies in clusters along
the Tunisian and Libyan coasts, on Sicily, and in southeastern Spain. Until
the rise of Carthage, the most important was at Gades and beyond in the
mysterious land of Tartessia (the Biblical Tarshish) although it is not clear
exactly who lived in the latter place, Phoenicians, native Spaniards, or more
likely both.
The trip from Tyre to Gades took 3 months, at the end of which a ship
had to navigate the Straits of Gibraltar with its treacherous tides and some-
times violent winds. Gades is believed to have been founded inc. 770BCEas
the gateway to Tartessia, a place still not archaeologically pinpointed but
said to contain so much silver that the inhabitants made furniture from it
and ships headed back to Phoenicia used it for ballast. The mining, pro-
duction, and transport of metals on so large a scale across such a distance
were enormous undertakings. The value represented and the profits realized
had to be huge to justify the effort. Tartessia became a byword for wealth
and remoteness. The early Greeks associated Tartessia with Hades, that is
until a Greek merchant named Colaeus was blown off course on his way to
Egypt in 638 BCE by a wind so relentless it carried him across the
Mediterranean and, according to Herodotus, through Gibraltar to Tartessia:
“This trading center was virgin territory at the time, and consequently they
came home with the biggest profit any Greek trader we have reliable infor-
mation about has ever made from his cargo.”This amounted to 60 talents,
an incredible 3,600 pounds of silver!
In the long run, the richest and most powerful of Punic cities did not
prove to be Gades even when combined with Tartessia. Carthage had a spa-
cious natural harbor, commanded a good defensive position, and fronted on a
hinterland that proved to be an excellent place to grow grain, olives, grapes,
and other fruits. Nearby waters contained the purple-producing murex
shellfish. The traditional date for the founding of Carthage is 814BCE.At
Of purple men and oil merchants 65