Note 615 — ETYMOLOGICAL TRUTHS

Horace speaks as if they had no fire: but according to Pliny they boasted of having a sacred and spontaneous appearance of it in their temple. [615]Reperitur apud auctores in Salentino oppido Egnatiâ, imposito ligno in saxum quoddam ibi sacram protinus flammam existere. From hence, undoubtedly, came also the name of Salentum, which is a compound of Sal-En, Solis fons; and arose from this sacred fire to which the Salentini pretended. They were Amonians, who settled here, and who came last from Crete [616]Τους δε Σαλεντινους Κρητων αποικους φασι. Innumerable instances of this sort might be brought from Sicily: for this island abounded with places, which were of Amonian original. Thucydides and other Greek writers, call them Phenicians[617]: Ωκουν δε και Φοινικες περι πασαν μεν Σικελιαν. But they were a different people from those, which he supposes. Besides, the term Phenician was not a name, but a title: which was assumed by people of different parts; as I shall shew. The district, upon which the Grecians conferred it, could not have supplied people sufficient to occupy the many regions, which the Phenicians were supposed to have possessed. It was an appellation, by which no part of Canaan was called by the antient and true inhabitants: nor was it ever admitted, and in use, till the Grecians got possession of the coast. It was even then limited to a small tract; to the coast of Tyre and Sidon.