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Greek city of
Kyrene
in
Kyrenaica
temp. Magas. As Ptolemaic governor, second reign, circa 261-258 B.C.
Bronze 13mm (2.64 grams)
Reference: Asolati 56B; Svoronos 333; SNG Copenhagen (Vol. 40: the Ptolemies)
436
Diademed head of Ptolemy I right, wearing aegis.
Forepart of Pegasus left.
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Pegasus (Greek
Πήγασος/Pegasos, Latin Pegasus) is one of the best known fantastical
creatures in
Greek mythology
. He is a winged divine horse,
usually white in color. He was sired by
Poseidon
, in his role as horse-god, and foaled
by the Gorgon
Medusa
. He was the brother of
Chrysaor
, born at a single birthing when
his
mother was decapitated by Perseus. Greco-Roman poets write about his ascent to
heaven after his birth and his obeisance to
Zeus, king of the gods, who instructed him to bring lightning and
thunder from Olympus. Friend of the Muses, Pegasus is the creator of
Hippocrene
, the fountain on
Mt. Helicon
. He was captured by the Greek hero
Bellerophon
near the fountain Peirene with the
help of Athena and Poseidon. Pegasus allows the hero to ride him to defeat a
monster, the Chimera, before realizing many other exploits. His rider, however,
falls off his back trying to reach Mount Olympus. Zeus transformed him into the
constellation
Pegasus
and placed him in the sky.
Hypotheses have been proposed regarding its relationship with the
Muses
, the gods
Athena
,
Poseidon
,
Zeus, Apollo
, and the hero
Perseus
.
The symbolism of Pegasus varies with time. Symbol of wisdom and especially of
fame from the Middle Ages until the Renaissance, he became one symbol of the
poetry and the creator of sources in which the poets come to draw inspiration,
particularly in the 19th century. Pegasus is the subject of a very rich
iconography, especially through the ancient Greek pottery and paintings and
sculptures of the Renaissance. Personification of the water, solar myth, or
shaman mount, Carl Jung and his followers have seen in Pegasus a profound
symbolic esoteric in relation to the spiritual energy that allows to access to
the realm of the gods on Mount Olympus.
In the 20th and 21st century, he appeared in movies, in fantasy, in video
games and in role play, where by extension, the term Pegasus is often used to
refer to any winged horse.
Cyrene was an ancient
Greek
colony
and then a
Roman city
in
present-day
Shahhat
,
Libya
, the oldest and
most important of the five Greek cities in the region.
It gave eastern Libya the classical name
Cyrenaica
that it
has retained to modern times.
Cyrene lies in a lush
valley
in the
Jebel Akhdar
uplands.
The city was named after a
spring
, Kyre, which the
Greeks consecrated to
Apollo
. It was also the
seat of the
Cyrenaics
, a famous
school of philosophy
in
the 3rd century BC, founded by
Aristippus
, a disciple
of
Socrates
. It has been
nicknamed then as “Athens
of Africa“
History
The
Greek period
Cyrene was founded in 630 BC as a
settlement of Greeks from the Greek island of
Thera (Santorini)
,
traditionally led by
Battus I
, at a site ten
miles from its associated port,
Apollonia (Marsa Sousa)
.
Traditional details concerning the founding of the city
are contained in
Herodotus
‘
Histories
IV.
Cyrene promptly became the chief town of
ancient Libya
and
established commercial relations with all the Greek
cities, reaching the height of its prosperity under its
own kings in the 5th century BC. Soon after 460 BC it
became a
republic
. In 413 BC,
during the
Peloponnesian War
,
Cyrene supplied
Spartan
forces with two
triremes
and
pilots
. After the death
of
Alexander III
of Macedon
(323 BC),
the Cyrenian republic became subject to the
Ptolemaic dynasty
.
Ophelas
, the general
who occupied the city in
Ptolemy I
‘s name, ruled
the city almost independently until his death, when
Ptolemy’s son-in-law
Magas
received
governorship of the territory. In 276 BC Magas crowned
himself king and declared de facto independence,
marrying the daughter of the
Seleucid
king and
forming with him an alliance in order to invade Egypt.
The invasion was unsuccessful and in 250 BC, after Magas’
death, the city was reabsorbed into Ptolemaic Egypt.
Cyrenaica
became part
of the Ptolemaic empire controlled from Alexandria, and
became
Roman
territory in 96
BC when
Ptolemy Apion
bequeathed Cyrenaica to
Rome
. In 74 BC the
territory was formally transformed into a
Roman province
.
Roman period
The inhabitants of Cyrene at the time of
Sulla
(c. 85 BC) were
divided into four classes: citizens, farmers, resident
aliens, and a minority population of
Jews
. The ruler of the
town,
Apion
, bequeathed it to
the Romans, but it kept its self-government. In 74 BC
Cyrene was created a Roman province; but, whereas under
the Ptolemies the Jewish inhabitants had enjoyed equal
rights, they now found themselves increasingly oppressed
by the now autonomous and much larger Greek population.
Tensions came to a head in the insurrection of the Jews
of Cyrene under
Vespasian
(73 AD, the
First Roman-Jewish War
)
and especially
Trajan
(117 AD, the
Kitos War
). This revolt
was quelled by
Marcius Turbo
, but not
before huge numbers of people had been killed. According
to
Eusebius
of Caesarea
the
outbreak of violence left Libya depopulated to such an
extent that a few years later new colonies had to be
established there by the emperor
Hadrian
just to
maintain the viability of continued settlement.
Plutarch
in his work
De mulierum virtutibus (“On the Virtues of Women”)
describes how the tyrant of Cyrene,
Nicocrates
, was deposed
by his wife
Aretaphila of Cyrene
around the year 50 BC
Decline
Cyrene’s chief local export through much
of its early history was the medicinal herb
silphium
, used as an
abortifacient
; the herb
was pictured on most Cyrenian
coins
. Silphium was in
such demand that it was harvested to extinction; this,
in conjunction with commercial competition from
Carthage
and
Alexandria, resulted in a reduction in the city’s trade.
Cyrene, with its port of Apollonia (Marsa Susa),
remained an important urban center until the
earthquake
of 262,
which damaged the
Sanctuary of Demeter and Persephon
and destroyed the
Library of Celsus
.
After the disaster, the emperor
Claudius Gothicus
restored Cyrene, naming it Claudiopolis, but the
restorations were poor and precarious. Natural
catastrophes and a profound economic decline dictated
its death, and in 365 another particularly devastating
earthquake destroyed its already meager hopes of
recovery.
Ammianus Marcellinus
described it in the 4th century as a deserted city, and
Synesius
, a native of
Cyrene, described it in the following century as a vast
ruin at the mercy of the nomads. Ultimately, the city
fell under
Arab conquest
in 643,
by which time little was left of the opulent Roman
cities of Northern Africa; the ruins of Cyrene are
located near the modern village of
Shahhat
.
Philosophy
Cyrene was the birthplace of
Eratosthenes
and there
are a number of philosophers associated with the city
including
Aristippus
, the founder
of the
School of Cyrene
, and
his successor daughter
Arete
,
Callimachus
,
Carneades
,
Ptolemais of Cyrene
,
and Synesius, a bishop of
Ptolemais
in the 4th
century AD.
Cyrene in the Bible
Cyrene is referred to in the
deuterocanonical
book
2 Maccabees
. The book
of 2 Maccabees itself is said by its author to be an
abridgment of a five-volume work by a Hellenized Jew by
the name of
Jason of Cyrene
who
lived around 100 BC.
Cyrene is also mentioned in the
New Testament
. A
Cyrenian named
Simon
carried the cross
of
Christ
(Mark
15:21 and parallels). See also
Acts
2:10 where Jews
from Cyrene heard the disciples speaking in their own
language in Jerusalem on the day of
Pentecost
; 6:9 where
some Cyrenian Jews disputed with a disciple named
Stephen; 11:20 tells of Jewish Christians originally
from Cyrene who (along with believers from Cyprus) first
preached the Gospel to non-Jews; 13:1 names Lucius of
Cyrene as one of several to whom the Holy Spirit spoke,
instructing them to appoint Barnabas and Saul (later
Paul) for missionary service.
The present
Cyrene is now an archeological site near
the village of
Shahhat
. One of its
more significant features is the
temple
of
Apollo
which was
originally constructed as early as 7th century BC. Other
ancient structures include a temple to
Demeter
and a partially
unexcavated temple to
Zeus
There is a large
necropolis
approximately 10 km between Cyrene and its ancient port
of Apollonia.
In 2005,
Italian
archaeologists
from the
University of Urbino
discovered 76 intact Roman statues at Cyrene from the
2nd century AD. The statues remained undiscovered for so
long because “during the earthquake of 375 AD, a
supporting wall of the temple fell on its side, burying
all the statues. They remained hidden under stone,
rubble and earth for 1,630 years. The other walls
sheltered the statues, so we were able to recover all
the pieces, even works that had been broken.”
Beginning in 2006,
Global Heritage Fund
,
in partnership with the
Second University of Naples
(SUN, Italy), the
Libyan
Department of
Antiquities, and the Libyan Ministry of Culture, has
been working to preserve the ancient site through a
combination of holistic conservation practices and
training of local skilled and unskilled labor.
Apart from conducting ongoing emergency
conservation on a theater inside the
Sanctuary of Apollo
through the process of
anastylosis
, the
GHF
-led team is in the
process of developing a comprehensive master site
management plan.
In May 2011, a number of objects
excavated from Cyrene in 1917 and held in the vault of
the National Commercial Bank in
Benghazi
were stolen.
Looters tunnelled into the vault and broke into two
safes that held the artefacts which were part of the
so-called ‘Benghazi Treasure’ . The whereabouts of these
objects are currently unknown.
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