Their ships went as far as the Scilly Isles, to Cornwall, and to Ireland. Diodorus mentions that the inhabitants of Great Britain were much softened in their manners by their intercourse with the “strangers” who came to their shores for tin. It is supposed that the strangers alluded to were the Phœnician Carthaginians. [Illustration: Fig. 214.—Votive Stele, from Carthage, with Sacred Emblems. (P. & C.)] [Illustration: Fig. 215.—Sacred Emblems, from a Carthaginian Votive Stele. (P. & C.)] In the fourth century B.C. the Carthaginians waged a war against the Sicilian Greeks, and carried off the statues of gods from their temples, and went so far as to copy their money the early Phœnician coins being copies of Greek ones (Figs. 212, 213). The votive stele (Fig. 214), from Carthage, shows the Greek Ionic-like columns, with the “blessing hand,” and a collection of sacred Phœnician emblems. Greek architects were employed in Carthage about this time. Phœnician architecture in every case consisted of borrowed forms from surrounding nations. [Illustration: Fig. 216.—Coin of Byblos, with Sacred Cone, enlarged. (P. & C.)] The sacred emblems (Fig. 215) are supposed to represent the cone-shaped stones, _betylæ_, from Bethel, the “House of God,” the great worship of the Phœnicians. The sign at the top is meant for a rude idea of the head and arms of a god (Tanit, face of Baal?). The figure on the right is the cone again, with the emblems of the goddess Astarte (Aphrodite), the lunar signs. The sacred cone is seen surrounded by the temple court on the coin of Byblos (Fig. 216). [Illustration: Fig. 217.—Astarte, terra-cotta, height 10½ ins. (P. & C.)]