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. If so many instances may be obtained from the west, many more will be found, as we proceed towards the east; from whence these terms were originally derived. Almost all the places in Greece were of oriental etymology; or at least from Egypt. I should suppose that the name of Methane in the Peloponnesus had some relation to a fountain, being compounded of Meth-an, the fountain of the Egyptian Deity, Meth, whom the Greeks called Μητις, Meetis. [618]Και Μητις πρωτος γενετωρ, και Ερως πολυτερπης. We learn from [619]Pausanias, that there was in this place a temple and a statue of Isis, and a statue also of Hermes in the forum; and that it was situated near some hot springs. We may from hence form a judgment, why this name was given, and from what country it was imported. We find this term sometimes compounded Meth-On, of which name there was a town in [620]Messenia. Instances to our purpose from Greece will accrue continually in the course of our work.