Roman sources say that during the Second Punic War, when the Romans besieged Carthage, part of the Carthaginian ships broke the sea blockade of the Romans and sailed towards the Pillars of Heracles. They were never seen again after that. Following them, the Romans sent seven ships of Scipio Aemilianus and the geographer Polybius.
Scipio reached Senegal and Cape Verde in his expedition (European ships did not arrive here until 1600 years later). Despite this, the Romans did not encounter the Carthaginians.
The Portuguese, who arrived hundreds of years later in Brazil, encountered mysterious inscriptions on rocks along the coast and inland. According to Andrzej Kapłanek, in the 19th century, the writing was read and it turned out that these are Phoenician and Carthaginian “notes” from the 1st century BCE. The world of science was sceptical about it.
In 1968, the American epigrapher Professor Cyrus Gordon recognized the so-called “Parahyba inscription” found in 1874 in Brazil, considered authentic. The inscription said that in the 19th year of King Hiram’s reign (around 600 BCE), a Phoenician ship was driven by a storm to the coast of Brazil.
Today, the authenticity of the Parahyba inscription is questioned and considered a forgery. Hardly anyone from the world of science recognized Professor Gordon’s discovery. Most researchers refrain from commenting on the presence of the Phoenicians and Carthaginians in South America.
