Note 275 — Chapter XIII · THE AFRICAN PROVINCES.

The designation Afer does not belong to this series. So far as we can follow it back in linguistic usage, it is never given to the Berber in contrast to other African stocks, but to every inhabitant of the Continent lying over against Sicily, and particularly also to the Phoenician; if it has designated a definite people at all, this can only have been that, with which the Romans here first and chiefly came into contact (comp. Suetonius, vita Terent.). Reasons philological and real oppose themselves to our attempt in i. 162i. 154 to trace back the word to the name of the Hebrews; a satisfactory etymology has not yet been found for it.