"In the month of Bui, in the fourteenth year that I reigne I, kim.' Eshmanasar, king of the Sidomnns, son of king Teboith, king of the Sldouiune spoke king Esh- manasar, king of the sidoniaiis, sayh
Ian Sar- cophn
before my time, in the flood of days— in dumbness ceases the BOU of gods. Head do I lie ill this toinh. in The grave, .in the place w hich I have built, l myself ordain that all the noiiles and all the people shall not open this place of rest ; they shall not seek for treasures and not carry away the sarcophagus of my resting-place, and not disturb me by mounting the couch of my slumbers. If people should !>peak to th'-e [and persuade thee to the contrary], do not listen to them, for all the nobles and all the people who shall open this sarcophagus of the place of rest, or carry away the sarcophagus of my couch, or disturb me upon this resting-place, may they flud no rest with the depart- ed; may they not he buried in a tomb, and ma] and successor live after them in their place," etc. (see Thomson, Lund ami. Book, i, 198 -
The votive tablets beat the same character through- out, differing only with respect to the name of the man or woman who placed it iii a certain sanctuary in accordance w it h his or her vow. Their material is mostly limestone or tine sandstone, rarely marble, and they vary from 5 to 15 inches in height, from 1 to 7 in width, anil from 1 \ to 1 in thickness. Beginning in most cases with the dedication to the god or goddess, or both, thus ; "[Sacred] To the god . . . [this tablet | which vowed N'.son (daughter) of N. When he (she) heard my voice ami blessed," or ''hear my voice and bless;" etc. The sepulchral tablets generally run somewhat in this manner: "Stone
erected i who Lerabbath Letanith Pen-Baal
lived . . . years." Much Uleaddan Lebaal Chfemmon A] vet remains to be .lone. [Sb]NadarChanbaal[Ben Abd] ",. ., , . , Ashman . . . [sdietna]
Even the palajographical [Ko]1[aBarcha .
To the Lady Tanith, the Face of Baal, and to the Lord Baal Chammon [is dedicated this] which has vowed Hanbaal [the
son of Abd] Ashman . . . [When he (or she. hears his voice, may he (or she) bless."]
side litis, notwithstand- ing all the ready mate- rial, not been settled gat-
i -tact orily yet. ( (tie
point, however, is indis- putable even now. There are at least two kinds of Phoenician writing to be distinguished most clearly. The older, purer, more orthographical, and more neatly executed, is found in the inscriptions of Phoenicia her- self, of Malta, Athens, Citiura, and Carthage; the younger, corrupted not only with respect to the grammarand lan- guage, but also with respect to the form oi the letters, w hich are less carefully executed, .and even exhibit some
strange, probably degenerate characters, is found chiefly on the monuments of Cyprus. Cilicia, Sardinia. Africa. Spain, Nuniidia. and the adjacent parts.
Besides these monumental sources for the language, there .are a few remnants ot il embedded, as we said, ill
ancient non-Phoenician writings. The Old Testament
.alone, however, has preserved its words — proper nouns chiefly— unmutilated. Later eastern writers even, not to mention the Greeks and Romans, have corrupted the spelling to such a degree that it is often most puzzling to trace the original Shemitic words. Phoenician names occur in Suidas. Dioscorides, Apuleius. in martyrologies, calendariums, icts of Councils, in Church fathers Vu- gustine, Priscianus, Servus), etc. The only really impor- tant remnant, however, is found preserved albeit fear- fully mutilated and Latinized in PlautUS's Pa j.ii/iis, act \. scene 1 of which contains, in sixteen lines, the Phoenician translation of the Latin text, with more tb.au one hundred Phoenician words. Several other phrases and words arc embodied in ad v. seems 2 and d ot the satin- play. 'let. although there is very little
PHOENICIA
163
PHCENIX
doubt among scholars about the greater portion of these texts, the corruption and mutilation which they had to undergo, first at the hands of Plautus, who probably only wrote them by the ear, then at the hands of gen- erations of ignorant scribes, have made more than one word or passage an insoluble puzzle. The first of the two specimens" of Phoenician [Punic] writing subjoined is taken from one of those Carthaginian votive tablets
^ Ik
2 £ |g ^ e^
•=* X r jt^ ^
o= © y jp^-^
with which the British Museum (now the wealthiest in Phoenician monuments) has lately been enriched, as mentioned before. The emblems on it are symbolical, and refer to the deities invoked. The lower part is mutilated, but easily supplied. The date is uncertain, perhaps the 2d or 3d century B.C. The second is a tri- lingual inscription from abase of an altar recently found at Pauli Gerrei, in Sardinia, and has been fully explained . by Deutsch (see Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature, 1864). Its contents are briefly this : A cer- tain Cleon, Phoenician by religion, Greek by name, Ro- man by nationality, a salt-farmer, vows an altar — mate- rial and weight of which are only given in Phoenician : viz. copper, a hundred pounds in weight — to Eshmun- Asklepios " the Healer" (the Phoenician Mearrach, clumsily transcribed Merre in Latin, and Mirre in Greek), in consideration for a cure to be performed. The date, given in Phoenician, viz. the year of two, ap- parently annual, entirely unknown judges, gives no clew to the time. Palatograph ical reasons, however, would place it in about the 1st century B.C.