the natural centre of an enormous traffic. It had easy access by the
valley of a large stream to the interior with its rich mineral and
vegetable products; it had the command of two seas, the Atlantic and the
Mediterranean; it trained its sailors to affront greater perils than any
which the Mediterranean offers; and it enjoyed naturally by its position
an almost exclusive commerce with the Northern Atlantic, with the
western coasts of Spain and Gaul, with Britain, North Germany, and the
Baltic.

Compared with Gades and Tartessus, Belon was an insignificant
settlement. Its name[5180] and coins[5181] mark it as Phoenician, but
it was not possessed of any special advantages of situation. The modern
Bolonia, a little south of Cadiz, is thought to mark the site.[5182]

We have reached now the limits of Phoenician colonisation towards
the West. While their trade was carried, especially from Gades, into
Luisitania and Gallæcia on the one hand, and into North-western Africa
on the other, reaching onward past these districts to Gaul and Britain,
to the Senegal and Gambia, possibly to the Baltic and the Fortunate
Islands, the range of their settlements was more circumscribed. As,
towards the north-east, though their trade embraced the regions of
Colchis and Thrace, of the Tauric Chersonese, and Southern Scythia,
their settlements were limited to the Ægean and perhaps the Propontis,
so westward they seem to have contented themselves with occupying a few
points of vantage on the Spanish and West African coasts, at no great
distance from the Straits, and from these stations to have sent out
their commercial navies to sweep the seas and gather in the products of
the lands which lay at a greater distance. The actual extent of their
trade will be considered in a later chapter. We have been here concerned
only with their permanent settlements or colonies. These, it has been