Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/463

 KYRENE UNDER PTOLEMY. 431 I have alrealy mentioned, that in the partition after the de- cease of Alexander, Egypt had been assigned to Ptolemy. Seizing with eagerness the opportunity of annexing to it so val- uable a possession as the Kyrenaic Pentapolis, this chief sent an adequate force under Ophelias to put down Thimbron and re- store the exiles. His success was complete. All the cities in the Pentapolis were reduced ; Thimbron, worsted and pursued as a fugitive, was seized in his flight by some Libyans, and brought prisoner to Teucheira ; the citizens of which place (by permission of the Olynthian Epikydes, governor for Ptolemy), first tortured him, and then conveyed him to ApoUonia to be hanged. A final visit from Ptolemy himself regulated the af- fairs of the Pentapolis, which were incorporated with his domin ions and placed under the government of Ophelias.^ It was thus that the rich and flourishing Kyrene, an interest- ing portion of the once autonomous Hellenic world, passed like the rest under one of the Macedonian Diadochi. As the proof and guarantee of this new sovereignty, we find erected within the walls of the city, a strong and completely detached citadel, occupied by a Macedonian or Egyptian garrison (like Munychia at Athens), and forming the stronghold of the viceroy. Ten years afterwards (b. c. 312) the Kyreneans made an attempt to emancipate themselves, and- besieged this citadel ; but being again put down by an army and fleet which Ptolemy despatched under Agis from Egypt,^ Kyr§n§ passed once more under the vice-royalty of Ophelias.^ To this viceroy Agathokles now sent envoys, invoking his aid against Carthage. Ophelias was an ofiicer of consideration and experience. He had served under Alexander, and had married an Athenian wife, Euthydik§, — a lineal descendant from Mil- ' Aiiian, De Rebus post Alex. vi. ap. Piiot. Cod. 92; Diodor. xviii. 21 j Justin, xiii. 6, 20. cjf avTiKa ftuXa tijv (ppovpav eK{3a},ovvTec, etc. ^ Justin (xxii. 7,4) calls Ophelias " rex Cyrenanim;" but it is noway probable tiiat he bad become independent of Ptolemy — as Tlirige (Hist. Clyrenes, p. 214) supposes. The expression in Plutarch (Demetrius, 14), 'Cil>i?^'Aa Tcj up^avri Kvpr'/vr/g, does not necessarily imply an independent fcuthorily.
 * Diodor, xix. 79. 01 Kvpr}valoi ....ttjv cKpav TrepccarpaTOTvedevaav,