parallel. Phœnicians and Italians in opposition to the Hellenes. Perhaps the element in this reaction which exercised the most momentous influence in the sequel, was the relations with the natives of Sicily and Italy into weaker Phœnicians entered with the view of resisting the Hellenes. When the Cnidians and Rhodians made an attempt to establish themselves about 175 [579] at Lilybæum, the centre of the Phœnician settlements in Sicily, they expelled by the natives, the Elymi of Segeste, in concert with the Phœnicians. When the Phocæans settled about 217 [537] at Alalia (Aleria) in Corsica opposite to Cære, there appeared for the purpose of expelling them a combined fleet of Etruscans and Carthaginians, numbering a hundred and twenty sail; and although in the naval battle that ensued—one of the earliest known in history—the fleet of the Phocæans, which was only half as numerous, claimed the victory, the Carthaginians and Etruscans gained the object which they had in view in the attack; the Phocæans abandoned Corsica, and preferred to settle at Hyele (Velia) on the less exposed coast of Lucania. A treaty between Etruria and Carthage not only established regulations regarding the importation of goods and the redress of rights, but included also an alliance-in-arms (συμμαχία), the serious import of which is shown by that very battle of Alalia. It is a significant indication of the position of the Cærites, that they stoned the Phocæan captives in the market at Cære, and then sent an embassy to the Delphic Apollo to atone for the crime.
Latium did not join in these hostilities against the Hellenes; on the contrary we find friendly relations subsisting in very ancient times between the Romans and the Phocæans in Velia, as well as in Massilia, and the Ardeates are even said to have founded, in concert with the Zacynthians, a colony in Spain, the later Saguntum. Much less, however, did the Latins range themselves on the side of the Hellenes: the neutrality of their position in this respect is attested by the close relations maintained between Cære and Rome, as well as by the traces of ancient intercourse between the Latins and Carthaginians. It was through the medium of the Hellenes that the Canaanite race became known to the Romans, for, as we have already seen (P. 136), they always designated it by its Greek name; but the fact that they did not borrow from the Greeks either the name for the city of Carthage,[1]
- ↑ The Phœnician name was Karthada; the Greek, Karchedon; the Roman, Cartago.
