User:T8612/sandbox/Cyrene (polis)

Cyrene, or Kyrene, was a Greek city-state (polis) in present-day Libya.

Battiad monarchy (631–440 BC)

Foundation (c.631 BC)

Cyrene was founded by the city of Thera, now the island of Santorini in the Aegean Sea in c.631 BC. A stasis took place in the city in the middle of the 7th century, perhaps because of overpopulation and a drought. In order to solve the crisis, Grinnos, the king of Thera, sent away a part of the population to found a colony, after having received the religious sanction in the form of an oracle from Delphi's Pythia. The expedition was commanded by Battos, who left with with only two pentaconters, so about 200 men. These men were only second sons, as their departure would ease the land ownership crisis. A Spartan named Chionis, triple Olympic winner between 664 and 656, is also recorded in the expedition (Sparta was also the mother-city of Thera).

Battos stopped at Itanos in Crete to hire a pilot, since the Cretans knew about naval routes to Africa. Most other suitable areas for a colony in the Mediterranean had already been taken by other Greek cities or the Phoenicians. Battos then landed on an island called Platea by Herodotus, located in the Gulf of Bomba. After two years, due to the harsh living conditions on the small island, the colonists requested a new oracle, who told them to move to the continent, first to a place named Aziris (on the coast, east of Derna), where they stayed for six years, then to what became Cyrene, on a plateau 10km from the sea, now the town of Shahhat. The site was chosen for its abundant rainfalls and presence of a water source, already a place worship for the Libyans, which the Greeks considered a source of Apollo. The source was named Cyra, after the Libyan word for Asphodelus, which gave its name to the city. It has no connection with the Thessalian nymph Cyrene.

These events are mainly known through the Histories of Herodotus, a historian working in Athens in the 5th century, who perhaps travelled to Libya. His story nevertheless reproduces the embellishments which the Cyrenians told him, especially on the life of Battos.

First kings: Battos I (c.631–c.599 BC) and Arcesilaus I (c.599–c.583 BC)

It is likely that Battos was initially named Aristoteles, because "Battos" meant king in ancient Libyan. Battos therefore reproduced the political system of Thera in its colony. He was also the priest of Apollo.

The first 200 colonists were only men. They took their wives from the Libyan tribes living around Cyrene, with whom they originally had a good relationship.

Battos reigned for about 40 years from his departure from Thera, so he died c.599. As with other oikistes, Battos received a hero-cult upon his death.

His son Arcesilaus I succeeded him, but little is known about his reign.

Battos II (c.583–c.560 BC)

The son of Arcesilaus I, Battos II "the Blessed" became king some years before 580. He is principally known for having invited settlers from the Greek world to come to Cyrene, because the influx of new colonists from Thera was probably not sufficient. This policy was supported by another oracle from Delphi. Settlers came principally from other Aegean islands, Lindos (on Rhodes island), Crete, and the Peloponnese. They were attracted by Battos' offer to give every new settler a plot of land, which was taken from the land occupied by the indigenous population. The good relationship that had hitherto prevailed between Greeks and Libyans ended at this point. As Egypt had nominal control of Libya, the pharaoh Apries answered the call of the Libyan king Adicran against the Greeks invaders, and mounted an expedition c.570. However Cyrene's phalanx soundly defeated the Egyptian army near Irasa (near Derna). Following his defeat, Apries was ousted by one of his generals, Amasis, who became pharaoh.

Battos II therefore made a powerful state out of Cyrene, which now dominated the Libyan tribes of Cyrenaica. He likely concluded an alliance with the new Pharaoh Amasis II and gave him his daughter Laodike as wife.

Arcesilaus II (c. 560–c.550 BC)

The Arcesilaus Cup, a kylix made in Sparta in the middle of the 5th century, depicting Arcesilaus II overseeing the packaging of silphion harvest. Now in the BnF Museum, Paris.

The first period of civil war in Cyrene took place during the reign of Arcesilaus II "the Cruel", son of Battos II. The king was in conflict with four of his brothers, who represented the interests of the landed aristocracy of Cyrene, against the tyrannical power of Arcesilaus. They finally rebelled against him and left 100km to the west to found the city of Barke, perhaps on an initial native city, against which Cyrene subsequently waged many wars. The rebel brothers incited the Libyans to revolt against Arcesilaus II, who sent his army against them. The Libyans refused combat against the Cyrenean army and lured it in the desert until a place name Leukon, where it attacked the phalanx on favourable terrain and inflicted 7000 casualties to the Cyreneans, a huge figure for the 6th century.

Herodotus and Plutarch give conflicting accounts of the events that followed the defeat at Leucon. The former states that another of his brother named Learchos poisoned him and became regent of his son Battos III. He tried to marry Arcesilaus II's widow Eryxo, but she in turn murdered him. Plutarch's account makes Learchos an evil friend of Arcesilaus II, who ill-advised him to cause his downfall. Historians usually favour Herodotus, but note that Plutarch mentions Egypt supported Learchos.

Battos III (c.550–c.530) and Demonax

Battos III "the Lame" was a weak king and could not oppose the initiative of the Cyreneans who requested an oracle from Delphi about the political situation in the city. The Pythia told them to bring a reformer from Mantinea in Arcadia to improve their constitution. This legislator was Demonax, who considerably changed the political order of the city. He redistributed the Cyreneans into three tribes according to their origin: Thereans, Peloponnesians and Cretans, and other islanders. So far only the descendants of the original settlers from Thera had political rights, while subsequent immigrants were only a sort of metics, who thus became full citizens with Demonax's reform. Demonax then deprived the king from his political powers, but retained his religious prerogatives, notably as priest of Apollo. It is possible that the magistracies recorded at a later time in Cyrene were created at this point. The constitution of Sparta, the mother-city of Thera, was the main source of Demonax's inspiration when he drafted the new constitution, since the magistrates were ephors, with a senate called the gerousia. The new political system was also an oligarchy, dominated by rich landowners, like the Gamoroi in Syracuse, or the Geomores of Samos.

Arcesilaus III (c.530–c.515) and Pheretima

Although Battos III had accepted Demonax's settlement, his son Arcesilaus III rejected it. He tried to find support among the urban plebs against the landowning oligarchs that benefited from the new constitution, but his attempt failed, because Cyrene largely relied on agriculture, with a small urban population too weak to counter the oligarchs. Arcesilaus III then went into exile in Samos, where the powerful tyrant Polycrates welcomed him, while his mother Pheretima went to the tyrant Evelthon of Salamis in Cyprus. In Samos, Arcesilaus recruited mercenaries by promising them a redistribution of the oligarchs' lands in Cyrene. His new forces enabled his return at Cyrene, and the exile of his opponents. Some fled to Barke, but Arcesilaus hunted the oligarchs in their country houses. He sent those he captured to Cyprus where Evelthon would have executed them, but their ship ran aground near Cnidos, whose inhabitants escorted them back to Thera. This event further shows that Arcesilaus' leading opponents where the old oligarchs, descendants of the first settlers from Thera. Arcesilaus then seized Barke and left a king named Alazeir in charge of the city, whom he also married the daughter. Alazeir's name shows a Libyan heritage, but perhaps he was also related to Arcesilaus II's brothers, as it seems that Libyans were largely integrated in Barke's society, more than in Cyrene. However, Alazeir and Arcesilaus III were murdered together in Barke by supporters of the former oligarchs c.515.

The queen-mother Pheretima had occupied a prominent place during her son's reign; she notably appeared in the council at Cyrene. But her son's death forced her to seek shelter in Egypt, which had been conquered by the Persian Empire in 525. She convinced Aryandes—the Persian satrap of Egypt—that her son was murdered for Medism and to organise an expedition against Barke. In c.514, the Persian army and navy besieged Barke, which fell after 7 months, and pushed west to Euhesperides (now Benghazi), which was another colony of Cyrene founded in the early 6th century, but mentioned for the first time at this occasion. The opponents of Pheretima were reduced in slavery and given to Persia; the emperor Darius sent them to a colony in Bactria.

Battos IV

After the expedition of c.514, the Battiads recovered their position, with the new king Battos IV "the Handsome". Cyrene was furthermore integrated into the Persian Empire, and became a part of Egypt, the 6th satrapy of the Empire. The Persian control of the area was however loose, since the satrap resided in Memphis and had no official in Cyrenaica. As Barke is mentioned separately in the ancient lists of Persian provinces, it must have recovered its independence rapidly.

c.512, Battus refused to help the expedition of the Spartan prince Dorieus, who tried found a colony at Cinyps, near Leptis Magna, even though Dorieus halted at Cyrene. Battos likely wanted to avoid upsetting Carthage, its powerful western neighbour.

Battos notably built the Temple of Zeus in Cyrene, one of the largest temples of the Greek world, similar in size to that of Olympia or the Parthenon.

Bibliography

Ancient sources

• Herodotos, Histories.

Modern sources

• David Asheri, Alan Lloyd, Aldo Corcella, A Commentary on Herodotus Books I-IV, Oxford University Press, 2007. ISBN 9780198149569
• John Boardman, N. G. L. Hammond (editors), The Cambridge Ancient History, vol. III, The expansion of the Greek World, Eighth to Sixth Centuries B. C., Cambridge University Press, 1982. ISBN 0521234476
• François Chamoux, Cyrène sous la monarchie des Battiades, Paris, De Boccard, 1953.
• André Laronde, Cyrène et la Libye hellénistique – Libykai Historiai – de l’époque républicaine au principat d’Auguste, Paris, Editions du Centre national de la recherche scientifique, 1987. ISBN 2222037468
• Mogens Herman Hansen & Thomas Heine Nielsen, An Inventory of Archaic and Classical Poleis, Oxford University Press, 2004.