Author: Peter Edmund Laurent

Publisher: Theclassics.Us

Published: 2013-09

Total Pages: 158

ISBN-13: 9781230223605

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1830 edition. Excerpt: ... CYRENAICA. Thts territory, lying for the most part in the Turktsh Mountains. Barca, was, on account of its five cities, frequently called the Pentapolis; it was a fruitful Greek colony, extending to the great Syrtis, from the 37th to the 40th degree of east longitude. Here were the Sand-Hills of Hercules, Herculis arenosi cumuli: the rivers were mere coast streams, the most remarkable of which were the Paliurus, rising out of a lake of the same name, and the Lathon near Berenice. The inhabitants of the interior were Libyan nomads; those on the coast were Greek colonists. About B. C. 631, a colony of Greeks, in obedience to the commands of the Delphian oracle, and under the guidance of Battus, migrated from Thera, and settled here; hence the Cyrenaeans were wont to call themselves Spartans. The constitution of this colony was at first monarchical. Under Battus II. the colony was increased by the arrival of several new Greek settlers. Under Battus III. the royal power was closely clipped by Demonax of Mantinea, nothing being left to the king but his income and the priestly dignity. Under his son Arcesilaus III. the country became tributary to Persia. In B. C. 514, it received a republican constitution; and frequent wars with the neighbouring state of Carthage signalized the following period. After the death of Alexander the Great, Ptolemy the First, by the assistance of his general Ophelias, made Cyrene to be a part of the Egyptian dominion, about 321 B. C: under Ptolemy Physcon, it became an independent kingdom. The bastard son of the latter Apion finally placed Cyrene in the hands of the Romans, who incorporated it into a province with Crete. It subsequently shared the fate of Egypt. Its main produce was silphium or laser, that is to...