She is thought to claim on a coin to be the mother-city of Melita, or Malta, as well as of Citium and Berytus;[1425] and, if this claim be allowed, we can scarcely doubt that she was also the first to plant colonies in Sicily.

Further than this, it would seem, Sidonian enterprise did not penetrate.

It was left for Tyre to discover the wealth of Southern Spain, to penetrate beyond the Straits of Gibraltar, and to affront the perils of the open ocean.
But, within the sphere indicated, Sidonian rovers traversed all parts of the Great Sea, penetrated into every gulf, became familiar sights to the inhabitants of every shore.

From timid sailing along the coast by day, chiefly in the summer season, when winds whispered gently, and atmospheric signs indicated that fair weather had set in, they progressed by degrees to long voyages, continued both by night and day,[1426] from promontory to promontory, or from island to island, sometimes even across a long stretch of open sea, altogether out of sight of land, and carried on at every season of the year except some few of special danger.

To Sidon is especially ascribed the introduction of the practice of sailing by night,[1427] which shortened the duration of voyages by almost one-half, and doubled the number of trips that a vessel could accomplish in the course of a year.