Before Chrifl 538. 47 



inhabitants, among whom there was a colony of Carthaginians, and an- 

 ther of Tyrrhenians. In order to fupprefs the piracies of the Phocreans, 

 the Carthaginians and Tyrrhenians provided a fleet, each of the allies 

 furnifhing fixty vefTels. The Phocjeans with a fleet, alfo of fixty veffcls, 

 met them in the Sardinian fea. In the engagement forty of the Pho- 

 caeans veflels were defl;royed or taken, and the remairiing twenty had 

 their roftra, or beaks, fliattered, and were rendered ufelefs. Notwith- 

 ftanding the original inferiority, and the almofl;-total defl;rudion of 

 the Phocaean fleet, the vidory is afcribed to them by Herodotus, (who 

 indeed calls it a Cadmean vidory) [Z. i, cc. 163-167] and fecmingly 

 alfo by Thucydides. [L. i.] But with all our veneration for the two oldeft 

 and mofl: refpedable of the Grecian hifliorians, it is impoflible for the 

 mofl: inattentive reader not to be ftruck with the grofs inconfiflencies of 

 this narrative. We are not told of any lofs fufl:ained by the allied fleet ; 

 and yet one hundred and twenty vefl^els were vanquiflied by the remain- 

 ing twenty Phoctean wrecks ! I fay nothing of the fuperiority, which 

 every thinking perfon will fuppofe, that the Carthaginians efpecially 

 mufl; have poflliflred in the conftrudion of their velfels, and in their 

 naval tadics, nor of the utter improbability of their being fo fliamefully 

 vanqulflied on their own element : neither do I lay any ftrefs upon the 

 fufpicious circumftance of three fleets, of fixty vefTels each, being fitted 

 out at the fame time, as if by a general agreement* ; but proceed to 

 confider the confequence of the battle, which was, that the furviving 

 Phocceans and their families with their remaining veflels abandoned the 

 ifland entirely, and found fettlements near the fouih end of Italy. This 

 is an inconteftible proof that the Phoca:ans were completely defeated ; 

 which, if it needs any corroboration, has the tefl:imony of Diodorus Si- 

 culus, who fays exprefsly, [L. v, § 13] that the Phocsans, after occupy- 

 ing the ifland for Ibme time, were expelled by the Tyrrhenians. 



A colony of PhociEans, who, according to fome authors, were a de- 

 tachment of thofe who were expelled from Corfica, failed to the fouth 

 coafl; of Gaul, where they founded Maflilia {Marfeille), a city, which 

 has in all ages kept up a high charader as the leat of fcience, commerce, 

 and naval power f. [Strabo, L. iv, p. 270 — Mela, L. ii, c. 3 — 'Jj'Jlini L. 

 xliii, c. 3.] 



The Tyrrhenians, Etrurians, Etrufcans, or Tufcans, appear, from the 

 hints to be found in antient autliors, to have poflTefl^d the greateft part, if 



* Neither have I troubkd the reader with the that it was built by a Phocian colony in ir.ore an- 



miracle, which followed as a luitable appendage to tier.t times, as related by Jullin, and that the refu- 



this wonderful vi3ory, which in its circumltances is gees from Corfica made fo confiderable an additiott 



very like a ftory extracted from Philinus by Poly- to the original colony, that their arrival was after- 



bius as a glaring inftance of partiality. wards confidered as the commencement of the 



•)- Eufebius, probably following Timxus, dates ftatc, which appears to have been alfo the cafe 



the foundation of this flourifhing commercial city with fome other communities. Herodotus, though 



in the forty-fifth olympiad, or, about 600 years willing to do all the honour in his power to tlit 



before the Chviftiijn a^ra. It is indeed probable PliQCxans, has not a word of Maflilia. 



