and Sidonians, known to us, are a Colony of those who live upon the Ocean ; adding like wise, as a Confirmation, the Reason why they are called Phenicians; because the Sea from whence they came, is the Red Sea, (and Phenician signifies a Red Man.) Others again say that these latter Phenicians, upon the Red Sea, are a Colony from ours.'
Strabo.
The last is the more probable Opinion, as they spoke a Dialect of the wide-spread Aramean Tongue, and in their Institutions both civil and religious, symbdliz'd with the Eastern Nations. Diodorus bears witness
Ibibd (g) 231. b
'That they had instituted their Order of Priests almost in the same Manner as they are settled in Egypt ; making them free from Taxes, giving them Immunity from all public Services, and putting them on the same Footing with those the People of Babylon call Chaldeans.'—But it was their Sea faring Character that made them famous :—
223. (i) / 232. (?)
'The Navigation of the Phenicians is very much talked of : They passed the Pillars of Hercules (the Streights of Gibraltar) and there they founded Cities ; others they likewise founded about the Middle of the Coast of A' fric, (Carthage, Uttea, Hisso, &c.) a little after the Trojan War.
Strabo.