The votive tablets bear the same character through mit, differing only with respect to the name of the man or woman who placed it in a certain sanctuary in accordance with his or her vow. Their material is mostly limestone or fine sandstone, rarely marble, and they vary from 5 to 1,5 in. in height, from 4 to 7 in width, and from 1+ to 4 in thickness. Beginning in most cases with the dedication to the gcd or god dess, or both, thus: " [Sacred] To the god . . . . [this tablet] which vowed N. son (daughter) of N. When lie (she)heard my voice and blessed," or "hear my voice and bless:" etc. The sepulchral tablets generally run somewhat in this manner: " Stone erected to . . . , who lived . . . years."—Much yet remains to be done. Even the paleographical side has, notwithstanding all the ready material, not been settled satisfactorily yet. One point, however, is indisputable even now. There are at least two kinds of Phenician writing to be distinguished most clearly. The older, purer, more orthographical, and more neatly executed is found in the inscriptions of Phenicia herself, of Malta, Athens, Citium, and Carthage; the younger, corrupted not only with respect to the grammar and language, but also with respect to the form of the letters, which are less carefully • executed, and even exhibit some strange, probably degenerate, characters, is found chiefly on the monuments of Cyprus, Cilicia, Sardinia, Africa, Spain, Numidia, and -the adjacent parts.
Besides these monumental sources for the language, there are a few remnants of it imbedded, as we said, in ancient non-Phenician 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 Semitic words. Pheni clan names occur in Suidas, Dioseorides, Apnleius, in martyrologies. ealendariums, acts of councils, in church fathers (Augustine, Priscianus, Servos), etc. The only really im portant remnant. however, is found preserved—albeit fearfully mutilated and Latinized —in Pleittus's Pcenulue; act v. s. 1 of which contains, in 16 lines, the Phenician transla t4on of the Latin text, with more than 100 Phenician words. Several other phrases and words are embodied in act v. ss. 2 and 3 of the same play. Yet, although there is very
little 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 car, then at the hands of generations of ignorant scribes, have made more than one word or passage an insoluble puzzle.
The specimen of Phenician [Punic] writing subjoined is taken from one of those Carthaginian votive tablets with which the British museum (now the wealthiest in Phenician 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 or3d c. n.c.
A trilingual inscription from a base of all altar, found at Pauli Gerrei, in Sardinia, was first fully explained by Deutsch. (Seo Transactions of the royal society of literature, 1854.) Its contents are briefly this: A certain Cleon, Phenician by religion, Greek by name, Roman by nationality, a salt-farmer, vows an altar—material and weight of which are only given in Phenician; viz., copper, 100 lbs.—to Eshmun-tEsculaphis " the healer" (time Phenician mearmeh, clumily transcribed merre in Latin, and inirre in Greek), in consideration for a cure to be performed. The date, given in Phenician, viz., the year of two, apparently annual, entirely unknown judges, gives no clue to the time. Paleo graphical reasons, however, would place it in about the 1st e. n.c.
Among those who have more or less successfully occupied themselves with Pheni: clan antiquities, language, and literature, and who have also, in some instances, deci phered inscriptions, we mention Scaliger, Bochum Pococke, Barthelemy, Swinton. Bayer, Dutens, Unmakes, Gesenius, Movers, Munck, Judas, Bares, De Saulcy, Ewald, Levy, Vaux, Reim, De Luynes, De Vogue, Deutsch, and others; to whose writings, contained either in special works or scattered in transactions of learned societies, we refer for further information on the subject of our article. The principal work in German is Movers's Phenizfer, unfortunately left unfinished at the author's death. A useful Eng lish compilation is Kenrick's Phenkia (Long. 1855).