The trade of the Phoenicians with the countries bordering the Eastern Mediterranean must be regarded as established long previously to the time when they began to feel cramped for space; and thus, when that time arrived, they had no difficulty in finding fresh localities to occupy, except such as might arise from a too abundant amplitude of choice.

Right in front of them lay, at the distance of not more than seventy miles, visible from Casius in clear weather,[51] the large and important island, once known as Chittim,[52] and afterwards as Cyprus, which played so important a part in the history of the East from the time of Sargon and Sennacherib to that of Bragadino and Mustapha Pasha.

To the right, well visible from Cyprus, was the fertile tract of Cilicia Campestris, which led on to the rich and picturesque regions of Pamphylia, Lycia, and Caria.

From Caria stretched out, like a string of stepping-stones between Asia and Europe, the hundred islets of the AEgean, Cyclades, and Sporades, and others, inviting settlers, and conducting to the large islands of Crete and Euboea, and the shores of Attica and the Peloponnese.

It is impossible to trace with any exactness the order in which the Phoenician colonies were founded.