Page:History of Greece Vol III.djvu/361

 THE GNOMON. 345 the jEginrean scale, 1 with its divisions, talent, mna, and obolus, is identical with the Babylonian and Phenician : and that the word mna, which forms the central point of the scale, is of Chal- dtean origin. On this 1 have already touched in a former chap- ter, while relating the history of Pheidon of Argos, by whom what is called the JEginaean scale was first promulgated. In tracing, therefore, the effect upon the Greek mind of early intercourse with the various Asiatic nations, we find that, as the Greeks made up their musical scale, so important an element of their early mental culture, in part by borrowing from Lydians and Phrygians, so also their monetary and statical system, their alphabetical writing, and their duodecimal division of the day, measured by the gnomon and the shadow, were all derived from Assyrians and Phenicians. The early industry and com- merce of these countries was thus in many ways available to Grecian advance, and would probably have become more so, if the great and rapid rise of the more barbaro'is Persians had not reduced them all to servitude. The Phenicians, though unkind rivals, were at the same time examples and stimulants to Greek maritime aspiration ; and the Phenician worship of that goddess whom the Greeks knew under the name of Aphrodite, became communicated to the latter in Cyprus, in Kythera, in Sicily, perhaps also in Corinth. The sixth century B. c., though a period of decline for Tyre and Sidon, was a period of growth for their African colony Carthage, which appears during this century in considerable traffic with the Tyrrhenian towns on the southern coast of Italy, and as thrusting out the Ph6ka?an settlers from Alalia in Corsica. The wars of the Carthaginians with the Grecian colonies in Sicily, so far as they are known to us, commence shortly after 500 B. c., and continue at intervals, with fluctuating success, for two cen- luries and a half. The foundation of Carthage by the Tyrians is placed at differ- ent dates, the lowest of which, however, is 819 B. c. : other authorities place it in 878 B. c., and we have no means of decid- ing between them. I have already remarked that it is by no ' See Bocckh Metrologie, clis. iv, v, vi ; also the preceding volume of thU History