over the destinies of Greece was exercised by the Delphian priests in early times which has seldom been fully recognised. The want of a settlement on the African coast, for the general interests of Greece, is felt; the Delphians determine to have it supplied. They fix on Thera, a Dorian settlement, and the most southern of all the Cyclades, as the point from which the colonisation will most conveniently proceed. They order the colony to be sent out, refuse to be content with anything short of a settlement upon the mainland, watch the progress of the settlement when it is made, and at the fitting moment cause the redundant population of Greece to flow towards it. The powerful and flourishing state of Greek Cyrene is, according to this statement, the absolute creation of the priests of Delphi. There are not wanting other instances of a somewhat similar influence. We may gather from what is said of Doricus (infra, v. 42) that he "did not inquire of 110 PLAN OF CYRENE. Book IV. næans had offered to all comers a share in their lands; and the oracle had spoken as follows: CHAP. 160. DEFEAT OF THE EGYPTIANS. "He that is backward to share in the pleasant Libyan acres," 7 111 Thus a great multitude were collected together to Cyrêné, and the Libyans of the neighbourhood found themselves stripped of large portions of their lands. So they, and their king Adicran, being robbed and insulted by the Cyrenæans, sent messengers to Egypt, and put themselves under the rule of Apries, the Egyptian monarch; who, upon this, levied a vast army of Egyptians, and sent them against Cyrêné. The inhabitants of that place left their walls and marched out in force to the district of Irasa, where, near the spring called Thesté, they engaged the Egyptian host, and defeated it. The Egyptians, who had never before made trial of the prowess of the Greeks, and so thought but meanly of them, were routed with such slaughter that but a very few of them ever got back home. For this reason, the subjects of Apries, who laid the blame of the defeat on him, revolted from his authority." 8 160. This Battus left a son called Arcesilaüs, who, when he came to the throne, had dissensions with his brothers, which ended in their quitting him and departing to another region of Libya,' where, after consulting among themselves, they founded the Delphic oracle in what land he should settle, or go through any of the customary preparations;" that, at any rate in Dorian states, when a colony was determined on, the choice of the site was habitually left to the oracle. Other examples of this practice are the settlement of the Enianes in Southern Thessaly (Plut. Qu. Gr. ii. p. 294, A.), of the Chalcidians at Rhegium (Strab. vi. p. 370), of the Spartans and Achæans at Crotona (Paus. III. iii. § 1; Strab. vi. p. 376), and of the Megarcans (if the account be true) at Byzantium (Strab. vii. 464). Sec on this subject Müller's Dorians, i. pp. 282-294, E. T. The beauty and fertility of the Cyrenaica are celebrated by all who visit it. Hamilton says (p. 78), "In the neighbourhood of Grennah, the hills abound with beautiful scenes. Some of them exceed in richness of vegetation, and equal in grandeur, anything that is to be found in the Apennines. The Wady Shelaleh presents a scene beyond my powers of description. The olive is here contrasted with the fig, the tall cypress and the dark juniper with the arbutus and the myrtle, and the pleasant breeze which always blows through the valley is laden with balmy perfumes." Again, on approaching from the west, he observes, "The rest of the journey was over a range of low undulating hills, offering perhaps the most lovely sylvan scenery in the world. The country is like a most beautifully-arranged jardin Anglais, covered with pyramidal clumps of evergreens, variously disposed, as if by the hand of the most refined taste; while bosquets of junipers and cedars, relieved by the pale olive and the bright green of the tall arbutus-tree, afford a most grateful shade from the mid-day sun.” (p. 31.) Apries had probably not thought it prudent to take his Greek auxiliaries against the Cyreneans. (See note on Book ii. ch. 163.)-[G. W.] Vide supra, ii. 161. "The quarrel was said to have resulted from the "ill temper" of Arcesilaüs II., who was therefore called & xaλerós. The brothers here spoken of seem to be the "Perseus, Zacynthus, Aristomedon, and Lycus," by whom Barca was founded, according to Stephen (ad voc. Báρкn). There is no difficulty in determining the exact site of Cyrene. The Arabic CHAP. 160. FOUNDING OF BARCA. 113 the city, which is still called by the name then given to it, Barca. At the same time they endeavoured to induce the Libyans to revolt from Cyrêné. Not long afterwards Arcesilaüs made an expedition against the Libyans who had received his brothers and been prevailed upon to revolt; and they, fearing his power, fled to their countrymen who dwelt towards the east. Arcesilaüs pursued, and chased them to a place called Leucon,3 name Grennah (Kuphun, or in the Doric Greek of the place, Kupáva, sounded Kyrāna) is sufficiently close to mark the identity of the ruined city, which is so called, with the Cyrene of former times. Inscriptions and coins dug up on the spot confirm the identification. Della Cella figures one of the latter thus: (See his Narrative, p. 143, E. T.) The situation of Grennah likewise corresponds very exactly with the accounts of Cyrene in the geographers. Grennah, according to Beechey, stands on the edge of a high plateau or table-land, 1800 feet above the level of the sea, which is at no great distance, being very distinctly visible, except in hazy weather. (Beechey's Expedition, pp. 434-5.) This account recalls very remarkably the description in Strabo, who had seen Cyrene as he sailed along the coast: πόλεως μεγάλης ἐν τραπεζοειδεῖ πεδίῳ κειμένης, ὡς ἐκ τοῦ πελάγους ἐωρῶμεν αὐτήν. (xvii. p. 1181.) The country around Grennah is celebrated for its fertility. The upper plateau, at the edge of which Cyrene stood, is cultivated in wheat and other cereals; the lower one, on which the town looks down, a thousand feet above the sea-level, is richly wooded, and diversified with meadows and corn-fields (see the view, p. 112). The best account will be found in Beechey (pp. 434-7). The site of Barca is not so readily fixed. Ptolemais indeed, with which it has sometimes been confounded (Steph. Byz. in voc. Вáρêŋ; Strab. xvii. p. 1181; Plin. H. N. v. 5), still exists in the modern Dolmeita, or Ptolemeta, a town of some importance upon the coast, nearly in long. 21°. But that the original Barca was not at Ptolemais appears both from Scylax, who places it 113 miles away from the shore (Peripl. p. 109), and from Ptolemy, who distinguishes the two cities (Geograph. iv. 4). Ptolemais undoubtedly arose, not upon the ancient Barca, but upon its port, the λuny kaтà Báρkηy of Scylax. Barca has therefore to be sought in the interior, 11 or 12 miles from this place. All recent travellers agree that the extensive plain of Merdj, which lies at the required distance from the coast, is connected with Ptolometa by two ravines affording a ready communication, and corresponds moreover with the descriptions of Barca left by the Arabian geographers, is the most probable site. It is an objection, however, that the ruins at this place are inconsiderable. (See Della Cella, p. 217, E. T.; Pacho, pp. 175-7; Beechey, pp. 396-402; Hamilton, p. 134.) 2 Barca was evidently an African word, and probably the previous name of the place at which the Greeks now settled. It is traced by some to the root bar, which is "desert" in Arabic (Bochart, Phaleg, i. 26, p. 496); but this scarcely seems a satisfactory account, as it ignores the third consonant, and does not well apply to the country, which is not desert. May not Barca, as the name of a town, have arisen from some word like the Hebrew a 'rekah, "a reservoir," the place having grown up around an attraction of that kind? It must be regarded as doubtful whether the epithet Barca, assumed by Hamilcar at Carthage, was really at all connected with the name of the city. [As applied to him, the term signified lightning, being analogous to the Пlderim adopted by Bajazet.-G. W.] The town Barca long outlived Cyrene. It was an important place during the Mahometan period; and the name still attaches to the neighbourhood, the whole of the Cyrenaica being known to the Turks as the province of Barka. 'Leucon is not mentioned by any other author; but Ptolemy places a city which VOL III.-8 |