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ἐφάτισαν ... κεκλῆσθαι, ‘gave them the name.’ Cf. ch. 68 ad fin. ἐπωνυμίην ποιεύμενοι κεκλήσθαι, Pind. Ol. vi. 56.

Φοινικήια. Not an adjective but a substantive in Ionic=‘letters’; cf. Inscription of Teos, circ. 470 B. C. (Hicks, 23, § 6) ὃς ἂν . . . Φοινικήϊα ἐκκόψει. H. justly uses the name as an argument for his view of the origin of letters, just as he makes the survival of the name διφθέρα for ‘book’, in conjunction with the continued employment of skins as writing material among the barbarians, a proof of their early use among the Ionians.

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