Phoenician Colonization and Carthage

Phoenician colonial expansion unfolded mainly between the ninth and sixth centuries BCE, driven by the search for metals — above all Iberian silver from the Tartessos region and tin from sources as distant as the so-called "Cassiterides Islands" — as well as new trade routes and land. Tyre was the mother city of most of the major western colonies, including Carthage, founded in present-day Tunisia in 814 BCE according to tradition, by Tyrian colonists legendarily led by Queen Dido, or Elissa. Other important foundations included Utica in North Africa, Motya in Sicily, Nora, Sulcis, Tharros, and Karalis in Sardinia, settlements on Malta and Gozo, and Gadir, Malaka, Sexi, and Abdera along the coasts of the Iberian Peninsula.