Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/753

 IP CTBEKE. son of Battoa 11^ about b. o. 554 — 544, whoM ty- num 7 caiuied the secenion of his brothers, the ibim- datioD of fiarca, and the revolt of a large irainber of the Libjan Perioeci, in a conflict with whom no less than 7000 hoplites were slain; and the king was soon afterwards strangled bj his brother Learchns. To this loss of prestige, his snooessoTi Battos III. added the disqualification of lameness. The Cyre- Daeans, nnder the advice of the Delphic oracle, called in the aid of Demonax, a Maatineian, who drew up for them a new constitution; by which the encrosch- xnents of the royal house oo the people were more than recovered, and the king was reduced to political insignificance, retaining, however, the landed domain as Us private property, and also his sacerdotal func- tions. The political power, in which it would seem, none but the descendants of tiie ori^nal colonists had any share, was now extended to the whole Greek population, who were divided by Demonax into three tribes: — (1.) The Therseans, to whom were still attached the Libyan Perioed: (2) Greeks from Pe- loponnesus and Crete: (3) Greeks firam the other islands of the Aegean : and a senate was also con- stituted, of which the kmg appears to have been pre- sident (Herod, iv. 161, 165.) In other respects the constitution seems to have resembled that of Sparta, which was, through Thera, the original me- tropolie of Cyrene. We read of Ephore, who pun- ished with atimia litigious people and impostors, and of a body of 300 armed police, similar to the Hippeis at Sparta (Heradeid. Pont 4; Hesych. Tpuurdrioi; Eustath. ad Hem, (ML p. 303; Grote, pp. 59, 60; Miiller,I>or.Bk. iii. c.4. § 5, c 7 § 1. c 9. § 13.) After ibe time of Battus III., his son AroesiUillB III. and his mother Pheretime attempted to overturn the new constitution, and to re-establish despotism. Thar first efforts led to their defeat and exile; but Arce- silatts returned at the head of a new body of emi- grants, chiefly fi:om Ionia, took Cyrene, and executed cruel vengeance upon his opponents. Whether from a desire to confirm his position, or simply from dread of the Persian power^ he sent to Memj^is to make his submission to Cambyses, and to ofier him an annual tribute, as well as a present; the 500 minae which formed the latter, were deemed by Cambyses so inadequate, that he flung them contemptuously to his soldiers. After these things, according to the motive assigned by Herodotus (iv. 163, 164), Arce- silafis became sensible that he had disobeyed the Delphic onuile, which, in sanctioning his return, had enjoined moderation in the hour of success; and to avoid the divine wrath, he retired firom Cyrene to Barea, which was governed by his £sther-in-law, Alazir. His murder there, and the vengeance taken on the Barcaeans by his mother Pheretime, by the aid of a Persian army, sent by Aiyandes, the satrap of Egypt, are related under Barca. Though the Persians ravaged a great part of the oountiy, and extended theur conquests beyond Barca as fiur as Hesperides, and though they were even inclined to attack Cyrene on their way back to Egypt, they left the dty unmolested (Herod, iv. 203, 204). The effect of these events on the constitution of Cyrene u thos described by Grote (voL iv. p. 66): ^ The victory of the third Arcesilafis, and the restoration of the Battiads broke up the equitable constitution established by Demonax. His triple dassification into tribes must have been completely remodelled, though we do not know how; for the number of new colonists whom AreesiUiiB introduced must have oeceesiuted a fresh distribution of knd, and it is CTREKE. 755 extremely doubtful whether the relatioo of the Theraean class of citiisens with their Perioed, as es- tablished by Demonax, still continued to subsist It is necessary to notice this fact, because the arrange- ments of Demonax are spoken of by some authors as if they formed the permanent constitution of Cyrene; whereas they cannot have outlived the restoratiim of the Battiads, nor can they even have been revived after that dynasty was finally expelled, since the number of new dtizens and the large change of property, introduced by ArcesilaUs III., would render them inapplicable to the subsequent dty.** Meanwhile **ancither Battus and another An»ti- lalis have to intervene before the glass of this worthless dynasty is run out" Of Battus IV., sur- named the Handsome, nothing needs to be said; but Arcesilafis IV. has obtained a place, by the merits of the Libyan breed of horses rather than by his own, in the poetry of Pindar, who, while celel»ating the king's victories in the chariot race (b. c. 460), at the same time expostulates with him for that tyranny which soon destroyed his dynasty. (Pind. f^th. iv« V.) It seems to have been the policy of this prince to destroy the nobles of the state, and to support himself by a mercenary army. How he came to his end is unknown; but after his death a republic waa established at Cyrene, and his son Battos fled to Hesperides, where he was murdered, and his head was thrown into the sea; a significant symbol of the utter extincdon of the dynasty. This was probably about B. c. 450. Of the condition of the new republic we have very little information. As to its basis, we are only told that the number of the tribes and phra- triae was increased (Aiistot PoUi. vi. 4); and, as to its working, that the constant increase of the democratic element led to violent party contests (ibid.), in the course of which various tyrants oh* tained power in the state, among whom are named Ariston and Nicocrates. (Diod. Sic. xiv. 34; Plut de Virt. Mvl; Pdyaen. Strat. viii. 38.) The Cy- renaeans concluded a treaty with Alexander the Great (Diod. xvii. 49; Curt iv. 7), after whose death the whole country became a dependency of Egypt, and subsequently a province of the Boman empire. [Ctrskaiga.] The favours bestowed on Atollonia, its port, under the Ptdemies, greatly diminished the importance of Cyrene, whidi gn^ dnally sank under the calamities which it shared with the whole country. Under the Romans it waft a colony, with the surname of Flatia. (Euseb* Ckron.; Eckhel, vol iv. pp. 127, foil.) At the hdght of its prosperi^ Cyrene possessed an extensive commerce with Greece and Egypt, especially in s»^ttM» .* with Carthage, its relations were always on a footing of great dutrust, and its commerce on the W. frontier was conducted en- tirely by smuggling. At what period its dominioik over the Libyan tribes was extended so for as to meet that of Carthage at the bottom of the Greater Syrtis is disputed [Arab Phii<aeiiorum] ; some reforring it to the republican age, others to the period of the Ptolemies. (Grote, vol. iv. p. 48, holds the latter opinion.) Cyrene holds a distmguished place in the records of Hellenic intellect As early as the tame of Herodotus it was cdebrated for its physicians (Herod, iii. 131); it gave its name to a j^iilosophic sect founded by one of its sons, Aristippus; another, Cameades, was the founder of the Third or New Academy at Athens; and it was also the birthpUos