Phoenician

• The Phoenician Language was spoken in Phoenicia and its colonies around the Mediterannean, and used the Phoenician Alphabet.
• Phoenicia occupied the area of modern Lebanon and Syria.

Decoding Phoenician

• The Phoenician language was decoded by the discovery of an inscription written in both Greek and Phoenician known as the Cippi of Melqart.
• The Pyrgi Tablets were inscriptions written in Etruscan and Phoenician, which also helped decode the Phoenician language.

Other Inscriptions

• The Marseille Tariff is a purely Phoenician Inscription on two stone tablets found in Marseilles in 1844. It lists the payments made to priests for sacrificing male animals and is thought to have originated from the Temple of Baal in Carthage.

Influence

• Phoenician used the Phoenician Alphabet which formed the basis of the Greek Alphabet, the Etruscan Alphabet and the Roman Alphabet.
• Phoenician was spoken in the colonies around the Mediterranean that were founded by Phoenicia.

Evolution

• The Phoenician language was spoken in Carthage and evolved into Punic.
• Phoenician also evolved into the Etruscan and Aramaic languages.
• It was still spoken as late as the fifth century CE by Augustine of Hippo (354-430 CE), also known as St. Augustine.