Phoenician–Punic literature

Phoenician–Punic literature is literature written in Phoenician, the language of the ancient civilization of Phoenicia, or in the Punic language that developed from Phoenician and was used in Ancient Carthage. Its nature and extent are extremely uncertain because there is very little direct evidence. Phoenician and Punic text survives only in inscriptions, of which very few can be interpreted as literary; on coins; and via Greek and Latin sources, such as the fragments of Sanchuniathon's History and Mago's agricultural treatise, the Greek translation of the voyage of Hanno the Navigator, and a few lines in the Poenulus by Plautus.

This limited evidence has led some scholars to argue that there was not a substantial literary tradition in Phoenician or Punic. However, Greek and Roman writings suggest that both Phoenicia and Carthage had extensive libraries and produced literature, including the Phoenician sources used by Greek and Latin writers like Philo of Byblos and Menander of Ephesus.