The Hellenistic World and Rome
bal.^8 It does not matter which. For what the inscription shows is that at least
fourcenturies after the Roman acquisition of Sardinia, Punic was still known,
was used, and could be composed and written. We perhaps talk too glibly of
the Romanisation of the western Mediterranean. It surely depended more
than we have allowed on a previous Hellenisation or Punicisation (or what-
ever the word should be). Punic culture survived not only in Sardinia; in
Africa Punic could be written until the second or third centuries, in neo-
Punic, Latin, or Greek characters, and was spoken, at any rate as a peasant
language, at least until the end of the fourth century..^9 When Augus-
tine’s friend Valerius heard some peasants near Hippo use the word ‘‘sha-
losh’’ to mean three, he was very interested—but only because the concept
‘‘three’’ meant the Trinity and ‘‘shalosh’’ sounded hopefully likesalus, salva-
tion (PLXXXV, ). For our purposes it is a pity that he was not more
intrigued by the fact that Punic had remained in use for no less than five
and a half centuries after the end of Carthage—and that the peasants, when
questioned, duly identified themselves asChanani, ‘‘Canaanites.’’
I use these examples mainly as models, to raise the question of whatmight
have happened in Phoenicia proper. But in the Hellenistic period at least
there is also some direct connection with the western colonies, a connec-
tion which was maintained unbroken through the period of Macedonian
conquest. Everybody knows that the Phoenicians firmly declined Cambyses’
order to sail against Carthage (Herodotus , ); but we may also recall that
when besieged by Alexander the Tyrians sent at least some non-combatants
to Carthage (Diodorus , , –). Moreover, when Alexander took the
place, he captured there some Carthaginian envoys who had come ‘‘in accor-
dance with an ancient law’’ to worship Herakles/Melqart (Arrian,Anab.,
, .). Publication is also awaited of a fourth-century..Punicfuneral stele
from near Tyre, of a native of Carthage who evidently died there.^10 But far
more important is Polybius’ splendid story of the escape of the Seleucid king
Demetrius I from Rome in , in which he himself assisted; for the ship on
which Demetrius travelled was a Carthaginian one on its way to take first-
fruits to Tyre (, , –). If this obligation was maintained a mere sixteen
. For the text, see M. G. Guzzo Amadasi,Le iscrizioni fenicie e puniche delle colonie in
Occidente(), , no. ;KAI,no..
. See F. Millar, ‘‘Local Cultures in the Roman Empire: Libyan, Punic and Latin in Ro-
man Africa,’’JRS (): ( chapter of Fergus Millar,Rome, the Greek World, and
the EastII:Government, Society, and Culture in the Roman Empire); see also Röllig (n. ).
. This is reported by J. Teixidor in ‘‘Bulletin d’épigraphie sémitique,’’ , no. ,
published inSyria.