154 



they pasesd into Attica. Now, Sanchoniatho informs us, 

 that the Samothracians derived their origin from Sydoc, a 

 tPhoehician divinity:* that is, a divinised Phoenician. It is 

 also certain, from Herodol. Lib. I. §. 57, that they spoke 

 a' barbarian language; and were barbarians, §. 5B: wete the 

 most ancient inhabitants of Greece, Strabo, Lib. Vll. 327: 

 and had spread over all Greece, Ibid, Lib. V. 220. Their 

 language, however, was not the Phoenician ; else Herodotus 

 would not have been at a loss to discover what it was; 

 nor would Cadmus have expelled them from Bocotia. 

 Hence, the conjecture of the very learned General V^l- 

 lancey, that they w^ere an ' Indo-Scythian nation, is not 

 destitute of probability; and is supported by many respee- 

 table authorities. 



The descendants of Hellas, who afterwards occupied all 

 Greece, fexcept Etoliia and Acarnania, seem first to have 

 landed in Attica, being the nearest part of the continent; 

 and, from the name of their particular ancestor, they be- 

 stowed, on the interjacent rocky and deserted island, the 

 name Helene. It is mentioned by Strabo, Lib. IX. 612, 

 and Pausanias, p. 85: but the Greeks themselves could not 

 know the reason of that appellation. On landing, they 

 found the country inhabited, though thinly, on account of 

 its barrenness, by two Pelasgian tribes, the Aones, and the 

 Temuices. Many of these tied to the southern promontory 

 of Sunium, where they are noticed by Strabo, p. 6l5; 



but 



* Euseb. Prepar. Evang. Lib I. cap. x. p. 36. 



