he southern coast of Brittany, built their towns on the
points of capes and promontories, sites which gave them ready contact
with the sea and protection against attack from the land side, because
every rise of the tide submerged the intervening lowlands.[424] Here a
sterile plateau hinterland drove them for part of their subsistence to
the water, and the continuous intertribal warfare of small primitive
states to the sea-girt asylums of the capes.

[Sidenote: Outer edge in early navigation.]

In the early history of navigation and exploration, striking features of
this outer coast edge, like headlands and capes, became important sea
marks. The promontory of Mount Athos, rising 6,400 feet above the sea
between the Hellespont and the Thessalian coast, and casting its shadow
as far as the market-place of Lemnos, was a guiding point for mariners
in the whole northern Aegean.[425] For the ancient Greeks Cape Malia was
long the boundary stone to the unknown wastes of the western
Mediterranean, just as later the Pillars of Hercules marked the portals
to the _mare tenebrosum_ of the stormy Atlantic. So the Sacred
Promontory (Cape St. Vincent) of the Iberian Peninsula defined for
Greeks and Romans the southwestern limit of the habitable world.[426]
Centuries later the Portuguese marked their advance down the west coast
of Africa, first by Cape Non, which so long said "No!" to the struggling
mariner, then by Cape Bojador, and finally by Cape Verde.

In coastwise navigation, minor headlands and inshore islands were points
to steer by; and in that early maritime colonization, which had chiefly
a commercial aim, they formed the favorite spots for trading stations.
The Phoenicians in their home country fixed their settlements by
preference on small capes, like Sidon and Berytus, or on inshore
islets, like Tyre and Aradus,[427] and for their colonies and trading
stations they chose similar sites, whether on the coast of Sicily,[428]
Spain, or Morocco.[429] Carthage was located on a small hill-crowned cape
projecting out into the Bay of Carthage. The two promontories embracing
this inlet were edged with settlements, especially the northern arm,
which held Utica and Hippo,[430] the latter on the site of the modern
French naval station of Bizerta.

[Illustration: MAP OF ANCIENT PHOENICIAN AND GREEK COLONIES.]

[Sidenote: Outer edge and piracy.]

In this early Hellenic world, when Greek sea-power was in its infancy,
owing to the fe