*

Oriental, Persian, or Armenian Diana, which Akerblad assimilated long since with nin. In this view others were so desirous to concur, that they discovered Tanaitis rarely occurs in ancient writers, or but in one or two passages, and these probably vitiated, in which its vulgar name, Anaitis, should be inserted: the modern Persian name of Venus, Anahid, Nahid, Nahidah, having that signification. But let these persons be cautious lest they rashly blot out the traces of an older and genuine form found in various writers, supported by numerous MSS., and of considerable authority in our inscriptions. For those passages of greater authority in which we read Tanais, are, one in Strabo, book xi. 13, 16; a second in Eusthatius Il. 14, 295; a third, which alone De Sacy seems to have had before his eyes, is from Clemens Alexandrinus (Prot. p. 43, Sylb.), thus ;

"Figures resembling the human form, Artaxerxes, son of Darius, son of Ochus, introduced; who was the first that erected in Babylon, in Susa, and Ecbatana, and in Bactria, and Damascus, and Sardis, and ordered to be worshipped, the statute of Venus Tanais.

66

Bulenger on Arnovius reads Avairidos. Compare also Plut. in Artax. 27, where he relates that Aspasia was chosen in Ecbatana to be priestess of Diana, whom they call Aneitin or Anaitin.

"A fourth passage is from Eustat. ad Dion. Per. 846. "The authority for Tanais is thus sufficiently strong. Even the learned will feel less hesitation in admitting it according to the vulgar form, when we come to examine the origin of both words. But that this Tanais or Anais was generally called Diana is confirmed by the passage of Plutarch just now referred to, and also by other authors among ancient writers, and we shall show hereafter that it had the same sacred rites as Omanus. Therefore the goddess nn, which may be called in Hebrew, is the divinity which at one time was worshipped by the Greeks under the foreign name of Tanaitis, Anaitis ; at another, under the domestic appellation Artemis; (see the passages just referred to ;) more properly Artemis the Persian; Artemis Tauropolos, Urania, Aphrodite, thence also Athene, which Creuzer quotes; and thence also called Bellona. By Artaxerxes' order who introduced her worship from Babylon into the cities of Ecbatana, Susa, Pasargadæ, in the Persian Gulf, in Armenia, in Scythia Taurica, in the cities and countries of Asia Minor, as Zelæ, &c. in Pontus, Comana in Cappadocia, Hierapolis in Phrygia, in Lydia, at Ephesus,§ she was worshipped with great honours, which renders Creuzer's conjecture probable, that she represented the moon or light-giver, pwopopov. Everywhere were the images of the goddess; in some places rude, representing

Strabo, Plut., Paus., Agath., Plin.

This Artemis the Ephesian, is rendered in the Arabic version of Acts, xxix. 24, Zoharah, (i.e. Venus.) Hesychius, on the other hand, gives Zaretis (i.e. Zoharah), Artemis, Persai. To which also belongs Azara, according to Strabo, 512, the temple of Minerva and Diana, more correctly Diana herself or Venus (Zoharah).

Apuleius the African, (Golden Ass. xi. p. 254, Bip.), invoking the moon: Queen of Heaven, whether thou art the fair parent of corn, or the celestial Venus, or the sister of Phoebus * and now adored in the glorious temples of Ephesus.

*

Especially Jerome, præf. ad Ephes. He (the apostle) wrote to the Ephesians worshipping Diana; not her the huntress, who bears a bow and wears the cincture, but

merely a trunk, without head or feet; or in other places it was turretted, armed, many-breasted, carried about with great ceremony on certain days, worshipped in Pyratheioi by the Persian priests, and virgins who prostituted themselves for gain: in some places sacred cows were kept in honour of her.

That this same Diana was worshipped by the Phoenician Athenians our inscription shows. Her Carthaginian worship will be discussed at greater length hereafter. But there are also other, and not obscure, traces extant of her worship and even name, n, in the proper names of Phoenician and Punic men and places. If indeed, according to a custom sufficiently received among the ancients, and even among the Phoenicians and Carthaginians, proper names were usually bestowed on men by which they confessed themselves to be worshippers of this or that Deity, then, by an ellipsis of the word (a b d), the very names of the Gods were assigned, as Alonymus for Abdalonymus. Towns also, by a similar ellipsis, then were accustomed to adopt the name of the Deity they worshipped. But of the former kind these examples are cited: first, the Shield of Tanaitis; of this power, which it was usual to represent armed, and therefore assimilates to Bellona, sufficiently ap propriate to the worshipper of the same. I cannot omit the remark that in Pocock's transcription of this title the middle letter seems rather to bethan ; but experience has proved to us what little value can be assigned to these transcripts. Second, Tennes, King of Sidon, as it appears, instead of the more ample formy. Third, Mutten is the same name as Myttonus of a Sidonian king, probably muttanith, a man of Artemis; as mutto-baal, a man of Baal; mutto-ashtaroth, a man of Astarte ; perhaps, in the fourth place, Masintha and Massinissa from masinith, opus (ta) Neithæ,† omitting , of which more presently. Again Turns (TOS) and Turic (idos) Tunis, (the Tunis of our days,) a town near Carthage, which I had written in Phoenician characters nn, I had explained as the Temple of Diana, i. e. the Artemesian.

her the many-breasted whom the Greeks call oλúμacrov. There was a temple de dicated with great ceremony to the same Ephesian Diana at Carthagena, near the island of Hercules (Strabo lib. iii. p. 159, Casaub.), and another similar in the same coast at Emporia (Strabo b. c. c. 160.)

Thus in the Old Testament, Ashtaroth, a city of Peræa, (Deut. i. 4; Josh, xiii. 12), so called from the worship of Astarte, more correctly Beth-Ashtaroth.

Nebo, the name of a city and mountain, from the worship of the god Nebo, or Mercury.

Amongst the Egyptians Amûn, i.c. Thebes, Mendes, Bubastis, so called from deities.

Among the Greeks, Athenai, from the worship of Athena.

With us, Radegast, Jüterbog, towns of Saxony, from idols of the same name, worshipped there by the Slavi.

The letters of the Egyptian name Neith, are found also in the proper name (DN) Asenath; Septuag. Aseneth; Alex. MSS., Asseneth; borne by Joseph's wife, the daughter of Potiphar, Gen. xli. 45, 46, 20. Whether written, as by Jablonski, CME-NEIT, i.e. adoring Neith, Opus. ii. 209, Parth. Æg. 1, 56, or, as I prefer it, AC-NEIT, devoted to Neith, Thes. ling, Heb. T. 1, p. 130. Other Egyptian proper names comprising the same name are, Nitetes, Herod. 31, i. e. given by Neith; Psammenitus, taught by Neith; Pataneith, devoted to Neith. Proclus in Tim. 31.

That the Upsilon, i. e. the obscurer sound of the sixth Ethiopian vowel, was pronounced similarly by the Carthaginians, and written by the Greeks and Romans in Punic characters, where it was either the changeable schwa or segol, is evident from numerous examples.

Secondly, Tingis, in Mauritania, which word is written on the coins generally assigned to the Spanish Sexti, I think I have myself discovered. Among these names, are two which have the n double, and this might persuade us that the writing was , Tévrne, or Tiyyiç. But this does not seem to have been the genuine and native pronunciation of the name, although so pronounced occasionally.

From this extract we shall leave our readers to draw their own conclusions we cannot, however, refrain from directing their attention to the immense mass of erudition displayed in it, and we have given only a few of the authorities. With respect to the etymology, Akerblad has suggested that it may very probably be the Neith of the Egyptians, with their feminine article Ta prefixed, and signifying, according to Münter, Mercy, Compassion, The second inscription is of a similar nature to the former, and its import is that it is the monument of

"Ben Khodsho, son of Abd-Milcart, son of Abd-Shemesh, son of Tagginez, of Citium."

The four names are in the Greek part of the inscription translated respectively, Numenius, Heraclius, Heliodorus, and Stephanus. We need scarcely point our readers' attention to the second name, which is a common Carthaginian one. The third inscription will not detain us, as it is little more than the representation in Phoenician characters of the Greek words, 'Egývn Βυζαντία.

The island of Malta is the next spot that arrests our attention. It was early colonized by the Phoenicians, and afterwards in the time of the first Punic war by the Carthaginians; consequently, as we may easily imagine, several inscriptions have been found, but most of them in very imperfect condition. One monument, however, which is bilingual, consists of the bases of two candelabra, one of which is preserved in the Museum of the Public Library at Malta, and the other at Paris, whither it came as a present from the Grand-Master Rohan to Louis XVI. Of this inscription several interpretations have been given, and it is hard to say, with the exception of two, which is the most absurd. One interpreter, pleasantly called by Gesenius "tribus Anticyris insanabile caput," renders it as as follows:

"Urinatori (magno) urinatorum magistro (deo) duci et (deo) absorbenti in die (quo) sublevarunt (anchoram) et natarunt et exierunt (ad

VOL. XXI. NO. XLII.

H H

verbum) navigarunt e Tyro, portum reliquerunt eum, coeperunt invenire coralium: exierunt iterum e Tyro, ecce vastare Lydam."'

We give it in the interpreter's own Latin, professing our utter inability to comprehend, and the same we may say of the next.

"Fluebat libertas, fluebat sors, inimicus imperabat: hostis absorptus. est: tunc insculptum, perverse eum effecisse, Cosuram rubum (desertam) remex eius deus eius praecipitavit eum equus (vel equitatus) eius emaciavit eum; pasti sunt Cossurenses, cum deficeret corpus et aspectus eius (inimici.)"

The interpretation given by Gesensius is as follows:--
"Domino nostro Melcarto, domino Tyri. Vir vovens (est)

servus tuus (i. e. sum ego) Abd-Osir cum fratre meo Osirschamar,
ambo filii Osirschamari, filii Abdosiri. Ubi audiverit
vocem eorum, benedicat iis."

The first name, Melcartus, is, as our readers are probably aware, the Phoenician Hercules. We may also notice that this inscription affords us evidence, were other wanting, to prove that, if not adored as the Egyptian name of Tanith, before alluded to, Osiris was at least familiar at Tyre. The Greek part of the inscription contains the same sentiment, but more shortly expressed; it is as follows:

“ ΔΙΟΝΥΣΙΟΣ ΚΑΙΣΑΡΑΠΙΩΝ ΟΙ

ΣΑΡΑΠΙΩΝΟΣ ΤΥΡΙΟΙ
ΗΡΑΚΛΕΙ ΑΡΧΗΓΕΤΕΙ.”

Here we may observe, that Abd-Osir is represented by Dionysius; and that Osiris, and Dionysius or Bacchus were considered the same we have proof from Herodotus, Diodorus, and Plutarch. There are very few coins found in Malta, and those doubtful, and most probably belonging to the neighbouring island of Gaulos, or the present Gozo.

Sicily we may easily conceive was an early object of Carthaginian colonization. There they built many opulent cities; among others, Palermo, Syracuse, and Heraclea may be mentioned. The inscriptions that are found here are for the most part in very bad condition; whereas, on the contrary, their coins and medals are extremely well preserved and well made.

We shall now turn our attention towards Africa, and there Carthage occupies a pre-eminent station. It was not, however, in Carthage alone that the Phoenician language prevailed; on the contrary, it was more or less in usage along the whole coast from Tripoli and Leptis, as far as Tingis (Tangier), and the Pillars of Hercules. It must not be understood, however, that the Phonician language and alphabet were the only ones adopted in that

vast and extensive region. Another, the Lybian, flourished at
the same time with it, as amply attested by a bilingual inscrip-
tion found at Tacca, and likewise by the sixteen verses in the
first scene of the second act of Plautus's Poenulus. The first ten
of these are Carthaginian, and the latter six Lybico-Phoenician.
We shall conclude our present article by calling our readers atten-
tion to this celebrated fragment of a great language, the only one
indeed in which is found a continued discourse. With the ex-
ception of Vallancey, O'Connor, and Sir W. Betham, who have
laboured hard to prove the Irish Celtic and the Carthaginian
Phoenician to be one and the same language, it has been pretty
generally admitted by philologists that the only key to this frag-
ment in Plautus must be sought for in the Hebrew; it being
assumed, as we have before stated, and we think fairly enough,
that the Phoenician and the Hebrew were identical.
But it may
be said, how comes it that the speech is in three different lan-
guages? It may readily be answered, that the intention of the
dramatist was, that the actor representing the part of Hanno
should repeat the speech in only one of the languages, and should
select that in which he was most skilled, whether that might
happen to be the Punic, the Lybian, or the native idiom. Ano-
ther point that may be assumed is, that the three parts have the
same or nearly the same import; that, in fact, they are transla-
tions more or less literal of each other. According to Bochart's
collection, the Phoenician is to be read in the Roman character,
as follows: :-

"1. N'yth alonim valonuth sicorath jismacon sith
2. Chy-mlachai jythmu mitslia mittebariim ischi
3. Liphorcaneth yth beni ith jad adi ubinuthai
4. Birua rob syllohom alonim ubymisyrtohom
5. Bythlym moth ynoth othi helech Antidamarchon
6. Y's sideli: brim tyfel yth chili schontem liphul
7. Uth bin imys dibur thim nocuth nu' Agorastocles
8. Ythem aneti hy chyr saely choc, sith naso.
9. Binni id chi lu hilli gubylim lasibit thym

10. Body aly thera ynn' ynnu yss' immoncor lu sim."

This he renders in Latin thus:

Rogo deos et deas, qui hanc urbem tuentur,

ut consilia mea conpleantur: prosperum sit ex ductu eorum negotium

meum.

Ad liberationem filii mei a manu praedonis et filiarum mearum.

Dii (inquam id praestant) per spiritum multum qui est in ipsis et per providentiam suam.

Ante obitum diversari apud me solebat Antidamarchus,

Vir mihi familiaris: sed is eorum coetibus iunctus est, quorum habitatio est in caligine (i. e, mortuus est.)