26 On the Affinity of the Phenician and Celtic Languages. 
great grandson of Joktan, but at length passed to the descendants of his brother 
Cohlan, who retained the title of king of the Harngarites, (by the Greeks called 
Homerites ). It is said to have continued in existence 2020 years, when the inunda- 
tion of Aram, soon after the time of Alexander the Great, dislodged many of the 
tribes who emigrated to other countries. 
Such is briefly the early received history of Arabia. It rests mainly on tradition, 
and, as was usual, especially with the Greeks, a personage is constructed to give name 
to a people. Hamyar is made the patriarch and ancestor of the Homerite. Hero- 
dotus, however, tells us the name of Homerite was significant, and had the same 
meaning as Phenicians, being evidently conferred, in consequence of the profession 
and habits of the people, that is, a mariner or navigator of the sea. This statement 
of the father of history is more rational and satisfactory than any tradition, especially 
when dependant on so slender a foundation. 
The Homerite may, therefore, be considered the most ancient and primitive inha- 
bitants of Arabia Felix, who flourished for ages, as the greatest, and perhaps, the only 
maritime commercial people of antiquity. They were conquered, and probably exter- 
minated long after the foundation of Tyre, by the warlike descendants of Ishmael ; 
and their commerce and mercantile settlements, or colonies, if they formed any, were 
transferred to their Syrian colonies who, in their turn, possessed of the empire of the 
seas, and after a long possession of the commerce of the world, and great glory, they 
eventually fell under the sword of a conqueror, whose sagacity and enlarged mind 
discovered the cause of their greatness, and ever assiduously promoted the commerce 
of his own subjects. Alexander acquired thereby, the name of Great, more deserv- 
edly, than from the deeds of arms which made his name terrible, as a scourge of the 
human race. ‘ 
After the fall of Tyre, Carthage, her most illustrious western colony, succeeded to 
her commerce and consequent wealth, power, and dignity, in the western world. In 
her turn, she fell a victim to the jealous rivalry of Rome; and with Carthage, the 
Phenician race, as rulers, ceased altogether. The savage decree of delenda est Car- 
thago, was extended to her records, muniments and monuments, which were so sedu- 
lously destroyed, that scarcely a vestige remains of this once great and illustrious 
people. The Greeks, indeed, acknowledge that they owe to the Phenician Cadmus 
their alphabet ; but the Romans would not tolerate the idea, and did all they could to 
efface the recollection and remembrance of a greater and more illustrious nation than 
themselyes—a people who did so much to promote the cause of humanity and the ci- 
vilization of mankind ; who conquered but the bad passions of mankind, and by com- 
merce, taught man that it was the interest of all that each should be prosperous and 
happy. 
A dark and almost impenetrable cloud has since obscured the Phenician story ; even 
the language was apparently annihilated; and thus was removed the only certain 
