456 EARLY MAN IN BRITAIN. [CHAP. xm. 



in Phoenicia. We should have expected that this want 

 of originality would have made itself felt least in things 

 connected with commerce, and yet it betrays itself 

 even there. The Phoenicians borrowed from Greek taste 

 and Greek art even in their coins, and on a gold coin * 

 from Carthage the head of a Greek god is to be seen 

 with a Phoenician inscription. They first copied the 

 Egyptians, then the Assyrians, and afterwards the suc- 

 cessive rulers of the Mediterranean with whom they 

 came in contact. The Phoenician " step " ornament is 

 probably derived from an Assyrian source, and the habit 

 of going to the animal and vegetable worlds for many of 

 their designs is certainly due to the influence of their 

 neighbours. It was indeed impossible, as Wiberg re- 

 marks, that in so small a territory as that of Tyre and 

 Sidon any independent style of art could have arisen. 1 



The Phoenicians in the West. 



The conquest of Phoenicia by the Assyrians, B.C. 

 859, was followed by an emigration to Africa of the 

 rich and illustrious Tyrian merchants, who founded Car- 

 thage, according to Movers, about 814 B.C. The new 

 emigrants, afterwards joined by another large body 

 of citizens flying from the attack of Nebuchadnezzar, 2 

 caused the centre of Phoenician life and power to be 

 shifted to the west. 3 The colonies in Sicily, Sardinia, 

 North Africa, and Malta, acknowledged the supremacy 

 of the new Tyre, and Gades and all its dependencies 



1 Arcliiv fur Anthrop. iv. pi. 1, fig. 24. 



2 In B.C. 590. Movers, Die Phomcier, ii. 2, S. 133. 



3 In dealing with the Phoenician influence I have followed Wiberg, 

 Der Einflms der klassischen Vdlker avf den Norden, Hamburgh, 1867. 



