These new settlers reduced the Phoenicians to the occupancy of three principal towns"-- i.e.Lindus, Ialysus, and Camirus; but "from these too they were expelled by the Dorians, or only allowed to remain at Ialysus as the hereditary priesthood of their native god."[554] Rhodes is an island about one-fourth the size of Cyprus, with its axis from the north-east to the south-west.

It possesses excellent harbours, accessible from all quarters,[555] and furnishing a secure shelter in all weathers.

The fertility of the soil is great; and the remarkable history of the island shows the importance which attaches to it in the hands of an enterprising people.

Turkish apathy has, however, succeeded in reducing it to insignificance.
The acquisition of Rhodes led the stream of Phoenician colonisation onwards in two directions, south-westward and north-westward.
South-westward, it passed by way of Carpathus and Casus to Crete, and then to Cythera; north-westward, by way of Chalcia, Telos, and Astypalaea, to the Cyclades and Sporades.

The presence of the Phoenicians in Crete is indicated by the haven "Phoenix," where St.Paul's conductors hoped to have wintered their ship;[556] by the town of Itanus, which was named after a Phoenician founder,[557] and was a staple of the purple-trade,[558] and by the existence near port Phoenix of a town called "Araden." Leben, on the south coast, near Cape Leo, seems also to have derived its name from the Semitic word for "lion."[559] Crete, however, does not appear to have been occupied by the Phoenicians at more than a few points, or for colonising so much as for trading purposes.