or the national name of Afri,[1] and the circumstance that among the earlier Romans Tyrian wares were designated by the name Sarranus,[2] which in like manner precludes the idea of Greek intervention, demonstrate what the treaties of a later period concur in proving, the direct commercial intercourse anciently subsisting between Latium and Carthage. The combined power of the Italians and Phœnicians actually succeeded in substantially retaining the western half of the Mediterranean in their hands. The north-western portion of Sicily, with the important ports of Soluntum and Panormus on the north-west, and Motya at the point which looks towards Africa, remained in the direct or indirect possession of the Carthaginians. About the age of Cyrus and Crœsus, when the wise Bias was endeavouring to induce the Ionians to emigrate in a body from Asia Minor, and settle in Sardinia (about 200 [550]), the Carthaginian general Malchus anticipated them, and subdued a considerable portion of that important island by force of arms; half a century later, the whole coast of Sardinia appears in the undisputed possession of the Carthaginian community. Corsica on the other hand, with the towns of Alalia and Nicæa fell to the Etruscans, and the natives paid them tribute of the products of their poor island, pitch, wax, and honey. In the Adriatic sea, moreover, the allied Etruscans and Carthaginians predominated, as in the waters to the west of Sicily and Sardinia. The Greeks, indeed, did not give up the struggle. Those Rhodians and Cnidians, who had been driven out of Lilybæum, established themselves on the islands between Sicily and Italy, and founded there the town of Lipara (175 [579]). Massilia nourished in spite of its isolation, and soon monopolized the trade from Nice to the Pyrenees. At the Pyrenees themselves, Rhoda (now Rosas) was established as an offset from Lipara, and it is affirmed that Zacynthians settled in Saguntum, and even that Greek
- ↑ The name Afri, already current in the days of Ennius and Cato (comp. Scipio Africanus), is certainly not Greek, and is most probably related to that of the Hebrews.
- ↑ The adjective Sarranus was from early times applied by the Romans to the Tyrian purple and Tyrian pipes; and it was in use also as a surname, at least from the time of the war with Hannibal. Sarra, which occurs in Ennius and Plautus as the name of the city, was perhaps formed from Sarranus, not directly from the native name Sor. The Greek form, Tyrus, Tyrius, seems not to occur in any Roman author anterior to Afranius (op. Fest., p. 355 M.). Compare Movers, Phön. ii. 1, 174.
