Maybe it's time we looked north, starting with Ireland, and some of its history.
For starters:
"On the life and character of Julius Agricola)" is a book by the Roman historian Tacitus, written c. 98, which recounts the life of his father-in-law Gnaeus Julius Agricola. In which it said:
Melius (Hibernae quam Britanniae) aditue portusque per commercia et negociatores cogniti;" i.e.
"the ports of Ireland are better known through commerce, and more frequented by merchants, than those of Britain." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricola_%28book%29It's well-accepted that the Carthaginians were a Phoenician colony. Or at least there was a strong connection between the two, including language. According to Charles Vallancey, in the plays written by Plautus (said to be the earliest surviving intact works in Latin literature) the character of Hanno, a Carthaginian, speaks several Carthaginian (or Phoenician) sentences. Vallancey translates these directly into Irish:
"He found them to differ little more than the different provincial dialects of the French, and even of our own tongue; and infinitely less after a lapse of 3000 years than modern English differs from what was in use four centuries ago. They are also to be found in Sir L. Parsons' "Defence of the Ancient History of Ireland." (Hist. Rev. State of Ireland, p. 6, Francis Plowden, 1805.) "Examples:
Carthaginian, as in Plautus: "Bythlym mothym noctothij nel echthanti diasmachon."
As arranged by Vallancey: "Beith liom! mo thyme nocto thii nel Ach anti dias maccoime."
Irish: "Beith liom! mo thym nocto thii nel ech anti dias machon."
English: "Be with me! my fears being disclosed, I have no other intention but recovering my daughter."
Carthaginian and Irish, without the change of a word or letter: "Handone silli hanum bene, silli in mustine." English: "Whenever she (Venus) grants a favor, she grants it linked with misfortunes."
Carthaginian: "Meipsi & en este dum & a lam na cestin um."
Irish: "Meisi & an eiste dam & alaim na cestin um."
English: "Hear me and judge, and do not too hastily question me."
(Hist. Rev. State of Ireland, pp. 6 and 7, Francis Plowden, 1805.)
http://100777.com/node/1399 According to legend:
"Atlas was the son of Neptune, whose name was Father Dan, or Poseidon, we can see at once that Calypso was a daughter of this Hebrew tribe, to wit, the Tuatha de Danaans, or Tribe of Dan; who, abiding in ships, set sail for the West and received empire and the stone of empire on their shores, when subsequently Jeremiah brought the harp of David, the Ark of Israel, the title deeds of Palestine and the famous Lia Fail, which spells both ways, and looks both ways, to Innis Fail – the Isle of destiny. It is around these topics that the romance of our story lurks, and we doubt not that in the near future, the spade at the mounds of Tara will unearth treasure trove of immense value to all future ages. "