2

HISTORY OF MALTA.

Pheeacians, a race of giants*. The Phoenicians, to whom thenavigation of the Mediterranean almost entirely belonged,landed in Hyperia about 1519 years before Christ, and findingthe island of great importance to their trade, they seized uponit, and established a colony, which soon became powerful andconsiderable. They introduced the worship of their own pe-culiar gods, together with those of Egypt and Persia; such asthe Tyrian Hercules, to whom the Greeks in after times gave thename of Alexicacos, or Averter of Ills; Juno, in honour of whomwas built a temple in the space now existing between the castleSt. Angelo and the city Vittoriosa; as also Mithras, Isis, Osiris,and Mercury. The latter was particularly revered as the pro-tector of commerce, to which the Isle of Hyperia (then calledOgygia) principally owed its riches and population. It wasgoverned by kings; and many medals or Punic coins are pre-served in the museum of the library of Malta, together withtwo monuments, on which may be perceived letters in Puniccharacters.

Industry and commerce made great progress among theGreeks, and extended themselves to Sicily, and a part of Italy,where were founded some celebrated colonies in an extent ofcountry, to which they even gave the name of the larger Greece.They drove the Phoenicians from Ogygia, took possession of it

* Some authors have attributed the building of different edifices to this people, on account ofthe enormous stones of which they are composed j and have also imagined, that many tombsof more than ordinary size were erected in these fabulous times.