By far the most important of the Punic texts and glosses in Greek and Latin transcription are the passages in the Poenulus of Plautus. This unusual transcription poses a number of philological, epigraphic, literary and historical Problems. Even a brief summary would be impossible here, but 1 shall refer, if 1 may, to my own work on the subject. The main passage is a speech by the Carthaginian Hanno who has come to his native town in the hope of rediscovering his daughters, who were brought up from an early age in Carthage. The following is my own translation. "I invoke the gods and goddesses of this place: I pray them to bring my endeavour to a successful outcome and to bless my journey. May 1, by the protection and justice of the gods, take back my daughters and my nephew here. Long ago my host was Antimidas ; they tell me his course is run. As to his son, of whom I spoke, I have been told that Agorastocles is to be found here. I have brought with me as proof this tessera hospitalis. I have heard that (Agorastocles) lives hereabouts. I will keep watch and find out from the people who come out." This comparatively extensive text is without doubt "literary" in character. But in fact it is nothing more than a translation into Punic of a Greek or Latin text (we cannot exclude the possibility that Plautus borrowed this text as it was from a Greek model), and the importance of this translation from our point of view lies in its evidence for the characteristics of Punic language and literature.

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