Colonies in antiquity were city-states founded from a mother-city, not from a territory-at-large. Bonds remained close, and took specific forms. Phoenician colonies The Phoenicians were the major trading power in the Mediterranean in the early part of the first millennium BCE. They had trading contacts in Egypt and Greece, and established colonies as far west as modern Spain, at Gadir (modern Cádiz), and later at Barcino (Barcelona). From Gadir they controlled access to the Atlantic Ocea… (More on Apoikia)