Before Chrift 868. 27 



riffied in great fplendour for at leaft two centuries, were utterly un- 

 known to Homer, the moft knowing of all the Greeks *. 



In the life of Homer, untruely afcribcd to Herodotus the great father 

 of hiftory, but perhaps compofed by another Herodotys of HalicarrialTus, 

 and undoubtedly a work of great antiquity, we are told, that Smyrna, 

 though but lately built, was a place of confiderable trade, and export- 

 ed great quantities of corn. Phemius, the (lepfather and preceptor of 

 Homer, taught letters and mufic to the youth of Smyrna, and received 

 wool in payment for his inftrudion. 



868 — It is apparently about this time, that we ought to date the ar- 

 rival of Eliffaf (whom Virgil has overwhelmed with fabulous fame un- 

 der the name of Dido) at Carthage, which, if it was really built lb 

 early as 1,234 years before Chrift, feems to have remained a place of 

 but little confequence till now, that EliiTa built the citadel of Bofra:}: for 

 her own refidence, and enlarged the town with fuch a number of new 

 buildings, that ftie has mofl generally been reputed the foundrefs of it; 

 and it is at any rate from this time that the importance of Carthage in 

 hiftory, and more particularly in commercial hiftory, is to be dated. 



Carthage was fituated on a fmall peninfula projeding into a bay, 

 which formed two excellent harbours. About equally diftant from 

 either end of the Mediterranean, and on that part of the African coaft, 

 which advances towards Sicily, Italy, and Greece, it might be faid to 

 be placed in the center of all the accelFible ftiores of the then known- 

 world ; while behind it lay an immenfe fertile concinent, which furnifli- 

 ed every thing neceflary for the fupport of the citizens, and a great va- 

 riety of valuable articles for exportation. 



When we read the hiftory of the Carthaginians, we ought ever to 



* Notwitliftanding the unrivaled powers of his fou to prefer any of them to that wliicli is handed 



ailonifhing genius. Homer pafled his h'fe in fucli down to us, from the national records of the Ty- 



perfonal oblcurity, that no circumftance of it, riaas, by Jofcpluis, viz. 143 years and 8 months 



iianded down to us, can connect him with any after the foundation of Solomon's temple. {_'jofeph. 



contemporary of fufficient eminence to have me- contra jipion. L. i-] 



rited a place in hiftory. It is therefor abfolutely No reader, whole judgemeat is above the ftand- 

 impoffible to give a decided preference to any one ard of a fchool-boy's, needs be told, that the ad- 

 of the many iras affigned to him. In this uncer- ventures of a queen of Carthage, called Dido, with 

 tainty the opinion of the great Herodotus leems an imaginaiy Trojan refuirce, cilled yEiitas, arc 

 the belt defcrving of credit, becaufe he is the old- entirely f;>bulous. Thofe, wlio widi to fee all, tliat 

 r(l author who mentions him ; though his tradi- can be faid for and againlt the pretended voyage 

 ti.inal account be confufed (as all tiadilions are) of .£nea3 to Italy, may coniult the Eflay upon 

 by making him prior to Linus and Mclampus, who that fiibjeCl by the learned Bt-chart. 

 are mentioned in Homer's own poems. He fays |; Bofra in the Phoenician huiguage figaifies the 

 [L. ii, c. 53] that Homer and Hefiod lived 400 fortification. The Greeks thaiigcd ic to Bu^k 

 years before himfelf ; and he was born 484, and (Byrfa) lignifying in their language a hide; and 

 publicly read his hiftory at Athens 446 years be- thence a very iVlly fable ivas invented of a treacher- 

 fore Chrift. Euthymenes (quoted by Clemens of ous bargain with the natives for as much land as a 

 Alexandria, Strom. L. i) fays, that Homer was bull's hide would indole, which, by being cut in- 

 born in the illand of Chios, and (louriflied 200 to very narrow thongs, was made to inclofe a large 

 years after the Trojan war. piece of gi-ound. The fame fable has been tranf- 



f After confidering the great variety of dif- planted 'mo the hiftory cf England. 



cordant dates affigned to Elifta, I can fee tio-rea- 



D -. 



