CHAP. 58. (57.)—THE THINGS ABOUT WHICH MANKIND FIRST OF ALL AGREED. THE ANCIENT LETTERS.
There was at the very earliest[1] period a tacit consent among
all nations to adopt the letters now used by the Ionians.[2]
(58.) That the ancient Greek letters were almost the same
with the modern Latin,[3] is proved by the ancient Delphic
inscription on copper, which is now in the Palatine library,
having been dedicated by the emperors to Minerva; this inscription is as follows:
NAUSIKRATHS ANEQETO THI DIOS KORHI.
["Nausicrates offered this to the daughter of Zeus."][4]
1. Herodotus, B. v. c. 59, says that the Phœnician letters were very
similar to the Ionian; and we are informed by Hardouin, that Scaliger, in
his Dissertation upon an ancient inscription on a column discovered in the
Via Appia, and removed to the Farnese Gardens, has proved that the
Ionians borrowed their letters from the Phœnicians.—B.
2. Herodotus confirms this opinion by a reference to an ancient tripod at
Thebes, written in what he terms Cadmæn letters, having a strong resemblance to those used by the Ionians.—B.
3. Tacitus, Ann. B. ix. c. 14, says, "The Latin letters have the same
form as the most ancient Greek ones."—B.
4. There is scarcely a letter of this inscription which has not been controverted, and no two editions hardly agree.—B.