The Hellenistic World and Rome
Greek traditions, and which can be brought into relation with the Phoe-
nician divinities as they appear in the Ugaritic tablets and elsewhere. The
entire work as preserved is based on Greek conceptions; but what can cate-
goricallynotbe asserted is that the material which finally came through to
Eusebius, in Caesarea, was fictional, and not Phoenician at all. Among the
fragments of Philo we may note also that in talking about human sacrifice
in circumstances of extreme danger, he remarks that among the Phoenicians
an only son is still called by a term, which he transliterates asἸεούδin Greek
(clearly reflecting the Semitic root for ‘‘one’’;FGrH, F b), and their
god is (still) calledEl. Furthermore, Eusebius, probably following Porphyry,
claims that what was reported from Sanchuniathon gained credibility ‘‘from
the names of the gods still used in the cities and villages of Phoenicia, and
the myths attached to the mysteries celebrated among them’’ (PE, , ).
It is entirely consonant with this that modern detailed studies of thePhoe-
nician Historyregard it not as good evidence for an actual literary work of
the second millennium.., but as a reflection of Greek interpretations of
Phoenician religion.
It would also be valuable if we could understand how ‘‘Phoenician’’ (if at
all) Porphyry himself was; and on this I still cannot find any evidence.^45 That
hisnamewas Phoenician, and that he and his friends knew what it meant, is
hardly very significant; nor is Eunapius’ statement that he came ‘‘from Tyre,
the foremost city of the ancient Phoenicians’’ (Vit. Soph.).Butperhapsit
is, precisely in thatthatwas how it seemed relevant to Eunapius to charac-
terise the place: it did not apparently matter to him that since about the
city had been a Romancolonia. We know this best of course from the other
Ulpian of Tyre, not the Greek Sophist of Athenaeus but his relative (as he
surely was), the lawyer:ut est in Syria Phoenice splendidissima Tyriorum colonia,
unde mihi origo est(as is the most magnificent colony of the Tyrians in Syria
Phoenice, from where I come,Dig. , , ). He is stretching a point, or pass-
ing over one; for when he was born, which was certainly not later than
when theboulē(council) dismissed the complaints of the traders, and long
before /, when Diodorus son of Nithumbalus made his dedication to
Herakles/Melqart, Tyre was still a Greek city. But was it perhaps something
else as well? In Ulpian’s eyes certainly: for he goes on: ‘‘distinguished among
its neighbours, of the most remote antiquity, powerful in war, most tena-
cious of the treaty it struck with Rome.’’ By ‘‘of the most remote antiquity’’
he did not mean merely that it had been a HellenisticGreekcity.Ifhedid,
. See F. Millar, ‘‘Porphyry: Ethnicity, Language and Alien Wisdom,’’ in J. Barnes and
M. T. Griffin, eds.,PhilosophiaTogataII:PlatoandAristotleatRome(), – ( chapter
in the present volume).