By 1250 B.C. the Phoenicians were well established as the
navigators and traders of the Mediterranean world, enjoying the
commerce that had once been in the hands of the Aegeans. Their
communities were organized into city-states; the greatest of
these were Tyre and Sidon; others were Tripoli, Aradus, and
Byblos. These were the home cities, but wherever the Phoenicians
ranged across the Mediterrean they founded posts and colonies
that later became independent states. Of these the most
important were Utica and Carthage (founded in the 9th cent.
B.C.). The Phoenicians were more or less under the intermittent
influence and control of the Egyptians, but with the weakening
of Egyptian power in the 12th cent., Phoenician mariners came to
dominate the Mediterranean. They went to the edges of the known
world, trading from the Iberian Peninsula to the Dardanelles.
Some authorities believe they went as far as Cornwall, seeking
tin. There is evidence that in Egyptian service they may have
sailed down the western coast of