CHAPTER I.

HISTORY OF CYRENE.

Derivation of the names Cyrenaica and Pentapolis — Causes which led to the country being colonized by a body of Dorians from Thera — Battus, the leader of this band, first takes possession of the island of Platea, and afterwards removes to Cyrene — Coalescence of the settlers with the Libyans — The dynasty of the Battiadæ — Constitution drawn up by Demonax, and granted by Battus III. — Attempt to overthrow it by his successor, Arcesilaus III., aided by his mother Pheretime, which is unsuccessful, and ends by his being murdered at Barca — The town is besieged by Aryandes, Satrap of Egypt, and taken by treachery — Brutal revenge of Pheretime on the inhabitants — Extinction of the dynasty — Condition of the new republic, and alliance with Alexander the Great — Becomes subject to Egypt — The names of the towns are changed — The last king of the Egyptian dynasty, Apion, leaves the country to the Romans by his testament, which is afterwards reduced by them to a province — Insurrection of the Jews, and a great massacre of the Romans and Cyrenæans — Sufferings of the population from the attacks of the Libyan barbarians, and by the ravages of locusts, plagues, and earthquakes — The Persian Chosroes overthrows the remains of the Greek colonies, which are finally overrun by the Arabs — Peculiar manner in which the boundary-line was fixed between Carthage and Cyrene — Eminent philosophers who lived at Cyrene — Description of the country and its former products — Recent history of the country. — _Page_ 1.